Gekirin: Shinigami no Seito
by Virilis
Summary: The Earth is overrun with war and despair. A Scientist and his crew hope to bring forth a weapon using his knowledge gleaned from studies on paranormal energy and spiritual forces. The result? ABS-131 Kurosaki Shin, the descendant of Kurosaki Ichigo.
1. Prologue: A World of War

This is the rewrite of Gekirin: The Way of the Shinigami, now written as the story of:

Gekirin: Shinigami no Seito. (Wrath: Shinigami's Path of Life).

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any original characters produced by Tite Kubo or Studio Perrot.

(If you want to know why I began to rewrote it, read the note I left in the other fanfic)

So here is the prologue! Enjoy!

* * *

The situation on Earth...

...

Year 2305 AD.

Simply put, it is a time of future revolution within the world.

A time in which humanity has made its best efforts to bring the toils of their labor into fruition:

Unity.

However, a rift between men still lingers, unable to be conquered by mere political means.

It is a gap that has separated men from the beginning.

Distrust, fear, and hatred.

Frustrated and filled with hopelessness, the former United States of America, the United Space Colonies of America made numerous attempts to persuade its neighbors, the European Federation Alliance and the Soviet-Asian League.

Of course, each nation has its pride, and that arrogance had caused those shots at harmony among the three superpowers to fail.

With other factors, including greed for wealth, lust for power, and the need to arise as the most fit to survive, the EFA and the RAL forced the USCA into a corner to struggle and retaliate.

* * *

Year 2312 AD.

The RAL nation prepares to overtake its closest neighbor, the EFA, and makes near god-speed preparations for war.

The EFA strikes back in a frightening series of defensive battles around France, Germany, and even among the coast of Italy.

These battles lead to the ignition of World War III.

The USCA passes the International Isolationist Act of 2312 AD. It closes off all ports and airways in its territories from the mainland Americas, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

This boosts the American economic state as it frees the USCA from dependence on other countries to provide work.

During this time, many Americans and American-Certified Asians make-ready make leave planet-side and find homes in the colonies in American space territory.

* * *

Year 2314 AD.

The RAL and EFA death tolls are surprisingly lower than expected, as new technologies make it easier for the common infantryman to survive and complete his or her mission.

Soon, the USCA feels the pushes and shoves of it's fellow neighboring nations, and begins to prepare for armed interventions.

It launches its first mission to stop a battle on March 3rd, then continues a series of interventions on July 8th, August 2nd, and November 7th.

* * *

Year 2315.

The USCA is pressured and feels the wrath of the EFA and RAL on-ground forces.

To prevent further losses, the USCA finalizes the unification of all countries and territories within its alliance with the launch of the American Magnetic Shield.

This literally causes the repulsion of foreign weapons and transport vehicles from entering American soil and "space."

The AMS system was created and put into effect by a renowned group of scientists led by Dr. Jacob Archibald, with Dr. Rousseau Borvinski as co-leader.

* * *

Year 2316.

Unnatural phenomenons occur around the world in the lands belonging to the European Federation Alliance and the Russian-Asian League.

The USCA watches from space as the two opposing forces destroy themselves... and flee from the paranormal activities sparking all over the planet.

* * *

Year 2317.

Dr. Archibald and Dr. Borvinski receive permission to begin studies on bio-chemical warfare and human testing for bio-organic enhancement.

With over 120 test subjects, their team fails to produce a successful humanoid weapon acceptable to the USCA government.

All test subjects are put into cryo-stasis and the project is restarted.

Dr. Archibald resumes with subjects 121 through 130.

Dr. Borvinski studies the odd source of energy emitted from paranormal sites, and begins to study "spiritual energy" and its effects on human beings.

* * *

Year 2319...

Planet-side in Tokyo, Japan, seventeen-year-old Kurosaki Shin is walking home with Kiyodama Sakura.

* * *

A/N - How was that for a prologue?


	2. Chapter 001: Recollection

Here is the First Chapter.

* * *

"Oi! Shin!"

The boy turned to the source of the voice. It was his team captain and best friend, Motoyama Kazuhiko.

"Kurosaki! You payin' any attention? You're a junior now! Set an example for your underclassmen! Run five more laps!"

"Five?..." the kid thought about it for a moment. "... Okay..." he responded in a lackadaisical manner.

"Tch... You 'bad-kid'..." the Track & Field captain watched as the orange-haired boy ran. It was his duty to keep the boy in shape. After all, his best friend was _the fastest_ runner on their team.

With a record of 10:12 seconds on the 100M race, Kurosaki Shin was the top runner in the prefecture, and possibly all of Japan. It was such a shame that he had to be so... lazy. Constantly getting into fights for his orange hair, weird yellow eyes, and stubbornness, the seventeen year old teenager stood out... just a little bit. Motoyama was determined to get the runner "inspired" this year.

Hopefully with the help Shin's stunning pink-haired, blue-eyed beauty of shmexiness.

Kazuhiko sat on the bench and pondered about that for a moment.

Everything Shin talked about, at least seventy-percent of it had to do with _her_. It was always this and that about what the two of them did, or what the two of them thought about... and he was soooo dense! Even he, Kazuhiko, could see that girl wanted to be more than "just friends." Unfortunately, as ironic as it was, the orange-haired idiot was so slow about these things.

The team captain grit his teeth. If only Kurosaki was that intense about track! ... And once again, he was jealous. Envious that his best friend had that close of a relationship with girl, so lazy, and still be able to run faster than their two back-up runners put together.

If only Kin was into him like that... then he would have the energy to run as fast, maybe even faster. But no, despite his best efforts, Yoshihara Kin, a friend of theirs constantly turned him down. In the end, they decided to leave it as "just friends." The thought of it made Kazuhiko mad.

"Oi! Kurosaki! Run ten more laps!"

"Eh?"

* * *

Shin ran hard. But his breathing was still calm and normal. He wasn't going to break down just yet; he still had a long way to go.

... And he had plans to meet up with someone afterwards. That bastard Motoyama! He was purposefully trying to make him tired! Shin ran faster in hopes of finishing before practice was over. That way he could leave early and wait for her early.

Of course, this was his best friend, before Kazuhiko.

This friend had always been there for him, and they had known each other since seventh grade. And now, they were going to high-school together. Since entering senior-high, they had joined up with Motoyama Kazuhiko, Yoshihara Kin, Furutsuchi Masao, and Sakurabana Harumi.

Akazu. The nickname Shin had given to his best friend. Of course, it pissed off the kid, but served well to express his personality. the word literally meant, "with untiring passion." Kazu, the other nickname, was just something else for short.

Kazu was always a spunky kid, always there to keep Shin in check. Making sure he did his homework, paid attention in class, got to practice early and do his routines and downs. He was always talking to him about his problems and needs, his interests, and hopes. And he sure as hell didn't care about Shin's odd-colored hair. Certainly a good friend indeed.

Yoshihara was something a little different. Kin was definitely more crazy about things then Kazu... it made Shin a little confused as to why Motoyama had any type of crush on her. She was _hot_, yeah, but didn't show any qualities that the bleach-haired teen would go for. She was loud, insensitive, and obnoxious. She spoke her mind whenever she wanted and made her wishes known. And to think people mistook her for his sister because she had blonde hair! How does blonde and orange go together!?

Next, Masao was one stern dude when it came to schoolwork. He was the class president, helping Kazu keep Shin in line... and then rebuked the zealous idiot for pulling a prank later. He was the epitome of "perfect student". Furutsuchi was always on Shin and Kazu's ass for being "stupid". Of course he would keep his "all-seeing" eye on the two of them. Other than that, the model student of Class B2 was a nice, easy-going guy.

Lastly, Sakurabana Harumi was the one closest to being Shin's standards of a "to-have" girl... next _her_ of course. Harumi was the vice class president, always following Masao around, helping the poor guy keep track of everyone's work and upcoming events. She was modest, honest, and rather shy about things like love... and speaking publicly. Shin had a feeling she was trying to "get closer" to Masao. He laughed - as if that board of wood would ever bend for her - he was too thick to think about love. Poor Harumi.

Of course, in his mind, Shin would keep his childhood friend as incomparable to his other friends... even if they were all a part of the same clique.

She was smart, kind, funny, considerate, and shared the same interests. And their parents where friends as well.

Like Kin, she was half-white, half Japanese. She was constantly picked on throughout elementary school for it, but that all stopped when he entered the scene. Smiling, Shin recalled the memory of his entrance into middle school. He could still remember her surprised face.

* * *

April 1st, 2315.

Shin got off the bus and followed the crowd into school. Of course, he was a responsible little child who knew what he was doing. Quite bright for his age. Once he had entered through the front door, he immediately spotted a teacher and requested to see the principal. The transcripts had arrived for his transfer into the Tokyo-to School of Excellence. He had received a recommendation from his former teacher to come here, and was here to prove that he belonged. Despite being in the fourth grade, he was deemed intelligent and promising, showing potential for his efforts.

After the school authorities had confirmed his paperwork, he made his way to his classroom.

He opened the door and stepped inside. The teacher introduced him to the class.

_Sayaka-sensei_, he recalled her named within his mind, but that didn't matter at the moment.

It was the scene after that lingered within his mind.

"Shin-kun, could you sit beside Sakura-chan over there? Near the window..."

"Hai. [Yes]" He turned his head toward the window to his right... and locked eyes with the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He could tell she was "half," with her creamy-white skin, but it made her all the more pretty to look at. Here blue eyes were like sapphire-jewels that seemed to pull his gaze into a deep ocean of wonder. He could only tighten his face and do his best to hide his blush.

"I'm Kiyodama Sakura, nice to meet you."

_Formal greeting, huh?_ Shin thought. "Hey. Hope we'll get along this year."

"Y-yeah..." She turned away so that he couldn't see her expression.

_Hmm? What's her problem? _Shin put his chin to his hand and shifted his weight to his elbow while staring out the window. _Tch._

Soon, time rolled by, and lunch time came.

Everyone rushed to the lunch room, leaving Shin behind in dazed and confused state within the classroom.

"Damn," he stood, staring at the mess the horde of hungry students.

"Can't they all just leave in a single file line or something? Now where was the lunch room again..."

He began to leave the room, but then made a short stop.

"Oh yeah! My wallet, its in my bag!" Shin quickly turned around... and found that Sakura was still sitting in her seat.

_A-re?_ [What] _Why's she still here?_ His eyebrow rose.

He tried to maneuver around her to get to his bag, but found that it was impossible to get up unless she moved. He stood there, waiting for some kind of idea to pop into his head miraculously. He failed.

"U-um... Kiyodama..."

She flinched.

"Er... Kiyodama-_san_? I kinda need to get to my bag for just a minute.. if you'll just excuse me..."

Her fists tightened.

_Oh crap_. Shin hoped she wasn't some kind of bully. _Maybe I'm not approaching the situation in the right way... hmmm..._

"S-Sakura?"

"Eh?" Her head whipped around and their gazes met. The look on her face was indescribable; it was as if she was... surprised or something.

"Oh..." Shin could see tears on the edge of her eyes. He frowned, knowing that he had somehow hurt her feelings. "...shit."

"E-eh?" She was still in a state of shock. Her gaze darted to and from on his face for a reply. He held his head.

_What have I done!? I just called her by her first name! That's something lovers dooo!_*** **_She probably doesn't even like me! And we only met today! Gah!_

"I-I..." He was starting to choke. Then he noticed the redness in her face. _Oh._

She was blushing too.

"Bwahahahahahah!" He couldn't hold it in. The sudden blurt of laughter came rushing out into the silence. "S-sorry! Hahahahah."

Sakura simply stared in confusion as he held his stomach laughing... for a good three minutes. She frowned, thinking that he was laughing at her.

"Ha... hahah... ha... whew." He straightened himself and reached out his hand. "Let's go eat together."

"E-excuse me?" the look on her face said that she couldn't believe what was happening.

A moment later they were both in the lunch room being watched by a many pair of eyes. She was fidgeting in her seat. They were sitting apart from everyone else. It wwas a boy and girl sitting_ alone_ after all.

People we're whispering and were trying to keep their voices down as they talked about them.

Shin could see that it was making her uncomfortable.

"Hey... look, its her, the 'mutt-blood'."

"I can't believe she's actually is sitting with somebody."

"He probably just feels sorry for her..."

"That slut! My eyes were on him first!"

"Pathetic."

"EVERYONE, SHUT UP!" Shin's voice boomed.

Silence ensued.

"What's your problem, man?" a kid next to him asked in annoyance.

"You got a problem with her?" Shin's thumb pointed to Sakura.

"W-what?"

"I said, do you have a problem with her?" Shin stood up and grabbed the boy's collar.

"N-no..." His eyes averted to the ground.

"Then shut up and leave her alone."

Releasing the boy's collar, Shin returned to his seat and made a face. "Tch." He really hated those kind of people. Scratching his orange hair, he smiled at Sakura who sat across from him and gave a "thumbs-up".

"They won't bother you anymore."

"T-thanks..." She looked down and poked her food with her fork.

"Hey."

"Y-yes?"

"You know, we didn't get on to a great start, so..."

"S-so?" She looked at him questioningly.

"I'm Kurosaki Shin, from today, I hope we'll be friends."

He held out a pinky finger.**

"Friends." She smiled... and locked her pinky with his.

* * *

Shin stopped running, a full smile on his face.

He ran to the locker room, got changed and made way to change his shoes, then quickly walked over to the front gates.

There, waiting for him, was Kiyodama Sakura, childhood friend and _secret lover_.

* * *

*Lovers, close-friends, or friendly people (in Japan) call each other by their first names. It is a very bold thing for a boy or girl to call another of the opposite sex by their first name.

**The pinky finger signifies love or your "significant other." In this sense, I was trying to portray Shin as initiating a "deep-friendship." He does like her, you know.

A/N - How was that, HAH.

First chapter COMPLETE!


	3. Chapter 002: Joy & Despair

Hahaha.

I wonder what all of you were thinking (including the newer readers) when I put:

_There, waiting for him, was Kiyodama Sakura, childhood friend and **secret lover**._

Oh well. This story is only good as the effort I put into it, and reviews inspire me to satisfy the reader as well as intensify the quality of the story.

So read and have a good time! Review much!

And thank you to all who have posted encouraging reviews already!

- Knives91: This one is most impressive. More please!

- Kage of Seireitei: interesting. I'll be watching this story carefully for further development. The prologue is certainly a catcher.

- Darth Hawk 32: Sounds interesting. Can't wait to see how it's different from the last story.

Yes, this story will be very different...

I will focus more on character development, detailed action sequences, and addictive plot scenes.

In concordance to this new resolution, the supporting characters that you may have seen may have either slightly or drastically changed based on the storyline I've dished out for you. As you see, Kazuhiko, Masao, Kin, and Harumi have not appeared to change much, but I have at least tried to give you a background check on their personalities. As for Shin and Sakura (who was Aoi in my other story), are given more background information to help the reader understand who they are, where they come from, and how they relate to each other.

* * *

He held her hand as the two of them walked, side by side along the road in downtown Tokyo. The couple came down to a diner, specifically a tea-shop for rest and relaxation... but it did have another major use. It was a "love nest" for young teenagers and college students.

They sat down, received a menu, and were waiting to make their order.

"I think... Should I have the double-bacon steak-burger with onions, lettuce and cheese?" her eyes peered out from behind the menu as her nose and mouth were hidden. "Um... maybe not," she giggled in embarrassment, "I'll get fat."

"That's impossible," Shin smirked. "You're skinny enough, there's no way you can get 'fat' with just one meal."

"...but its the double-bacon... with steak... and-"

"Okay! Okay! I got the point," The orange-haired male had to laugh. "B-but you'd still be b-beautiful even after eating it." He had to turn his face after making that comment. She smiled and looked down into the menu, completely hiding her reddened face behind it.

Shin let out a full grin. He loved her to death - and today was a special day.

"Hey, could you wait here for a bit? I gotta go to the bathroom." He got out of his seat.

"Hm?" her head turned ever so slightly before giving a reply, "I'm not going anywhere..."

Shin bolted using his superior speed to run out to a store about three blocks away in about a minute. He took out his receipt and ordered his reserved item. It was a specially made item, specially made for today. And that made it all the more special. Who wouldn't think so?

He sprinted back, making it to inside the store within forty seconds. In another ten he was back in his seat, acting as if nothing had happened.

"Where did you go?" She put down the menu and gazed into his eyes, waiting for an answer.

"U-uh... nowhere. Just the bathroom! Heheh..." He scratched the back of his head and grinned. Shin would only have to keep up the act for a little while. Everything would come in due time.

"Sure... Don't worry, I've got a present for you~" the pink-haired female slowly drew out a little wrapped bag and wove it in front of him. He swallowed. Hard.

"O-oh..." He was definitely excited. Shin had to clench his teeth to try his best not to burst out in joyfulness.

"Hmm?" She knew it was driving him crazy. The blue-eyed girl put the present back into her purse.

"Aww..." Shin's expression turned into a frown. He was looking forward to opening it too.

"Don't worry, you'll get it. Eventually."

"Gah!"

* * *

"W-what are they doing!?"

"Shh! You're too loud!"

"What are you talking about, they're_ inside_ the diner! You idiot!"

Kazuhiko and Kin pushed and shoved as they tried to watch from the other side of the street into the window of the diner. They tried to peer in through the blinds, but it was much too difficult from this distance. They'd have to get in closer.

"Why are we doing this again?" Kazu scratched his chin.

"... because... we saw them _holding hands!_"

* * *

"I love bacon... and steak... and everything within this burger... mmm..." Sakura was seductively rubbing her lips together... and Shin couldn't tear his eyes away from the scene. It was one thing to watch your girlfriend eat something. It is entirely another when she eats it with such... shmexiness. He was practically drooling, not from the food before him, but the event unfolding in front of him. His grip was nearly squishing the french-fry within his hand.

"U-uh... S-Sakura..." Shin did his best to contain himself in public. _Damn. She's definitely pushing it today... maybe she wants _that_... I better _up_ the ante... but how would I do that?_

Shin mentally scratched his head. Searching within his mind for some kind of devious plan, he waited until she finished. He failed... again.

"U-umm... Sakura? Do you want to leave?"

"Mmyeah. Not yet." She looked away, towards the window. Shin caught a glimpse of the major blush she was having and grinned. He knew she had mustered up a supreme amount of courage to eat the burger that way. There was no way she was that bold originally.

It was because of _today_.

* * *

"Shh, just follow them," Kin said from under her scarf.

"You know, its like the middle of freaking June. Obviously they'll notice your oddity with that."

"Shut up!" she snapped back at Kazu. "Just be quiet and tail them!"

_It's not like your not noticeable enough_, Kazuhiko snorted. _You're freaking half white! Everyone's staring at you already!_

Motoyama Kazuhiko sighed. The two of them had been following Shin and his supposedly "secret" girlfriend for about five minutes. It was getting nowhere. The couple would walk, then stop and look at some cute little thing behind store windows, continue walking, then repeat.

More importantly, who would have thought that Shin and Sakura were going out!? It was the most confusing and mind-buggling thing that Kazu had ever encountered. Throughout all his years in high-school, he knew that the couple were closer friends that anyone. But to think that they had a relationship hidden... or did it begin today?

Kazu honestly didn't know. If it had been today, Shin showed no signs that could reveal it. If it was a relationship that had started a while back, then he was damn good at hiding it. Why wouldn't the bleach-haired boy not tell even his best friend? Was it something too embarrassing to be revealed? Or was there another reason that he didn't know about? Whatever it was, Kazuhiko would find out eventually, by patience or force.

Kin on the other hand, she was exploding with anxiousness and eagerness to take apart the evidence and shred it all until she knew everything. She wanted to know about her "sister". Since the beginning of freshmen year, just when everyone began to get to know each other, Yoshihara had deemed Kiyodama Sakura as her fellow half-white, half-asian sister. Which would somehow annoy Shin because people jokingly stated that Kin and he were the two "obnoxious siblings" and to have the pink-haired one be known as a sibling to one of _those_ siblings... Well - Shin was just annoyed.

"O-oh! Kazu, quick, hide!"

"Huh?"

Kazuhiko felt a fast arm pull him into the bushes.

* * *

"H-hey, you know... today..." Shin was beginning to sweat a little as he was getting nervous.

"I-I know, it's the anniversary of our three years _together_... and I want to give you my p-present now." Sakura was freezing up too.

* * *

_**Three Years!?**_ Kazuhiko and Kin both mentally shouted at the same time.

* * *

She took out her present for him, but didn't quite hand it over. Instead, she reached into the little decorated bag and reached in. As Shin watched with a raised eyebrow, Sakura pulled out a chain... with a faded-gold ring within its locks.

"W-wha-" Shin had several thoughts racing through his mind... it was just that he couldn't pick which one to say.

"Shhh..." She smiled as she undid the clip and put it around his neck. "This... this was my grandmother's ring. She got it from her husband... and I hope that I can pass on that blessing to you... s-so that..."

She looked down and blushed.

"S-so that we can together... f-forever."

They both looked down, unable to meet the others eyes out of embarrassment.

"W-well, let me give you mine now..." The yellow-eyed teen struggled to get out his wrapped gift against the blowing wind. They were standing upon a catwalk, above the city streets, in full view of the setting sun looming over Tokyo Bay. Shin thanked whoever was responsible for such a beautiful view and pleasant atmosphere. There were hardly any people walking on the little bridge to disturb them.

He smiled as he handed over the gift.

* * *

"Oooohhh!" Kin was holding her hand to her mouth to prevent her squeal of excitement from leaving her mouth.

Kazuhiko... he was busy removing leaves from his person as they watched from behind the bushes and muttering about "three years".

* * *

Sakura carefully peeled back the wrapping paper, taking her time as she wondered what could be inside the little casing behind it. After letting her fingers do their magic, she pulled out a little plastic container...

... with a platinum heart-shaped locket inside.

She looked up to see Shin smiling, staring into her eyes. She was unable to respond, unable to make any kind of noise. Her heart was beating, thumping so loud that she could hear it within her own ears. Sakura knew immediately what would be inside the locket, but she opened the casing anyway.

Inside, Kidoyama Sakura couldn't help but let a few tears roll as she found a cute little picture of the two of their young selves from the beginning of their true relationship, back in seventh grade. She stared at the picture, and cried... cried until she was nearly unable to stand properly. Sakura leaned on her boyfriend, then felt a hand grasp the locket chain... and she gasped as it placed it around her neck.

* * *

Shin set the locket around her delicate neck, trying to be as gentle as possible.

He was utterly unable to express his happiness for the love that he had found with Sakura.

She was, without a doubt, his pure jewel.*

* * *

Sakura leaned forward and shifted her weight to her toes.

* * *

Shin leaned toward her, and bent his head downwards.

* * *

Kin and Kazu both watched as the two locked in the most romantic kiss they had ever seen.

"Damn," Kazuhiko stared as his best friend made out with his crush's "sister".

Kin smacked him over the head.

* * *

They separated.

Still huffing and puffing from the most intense kiss that they had ever experienced, Shin and Sakura stood there in each others' arms.

Shin buried his cheek into her hair, getting a whiff of lavender. It was a very assuring and familiar smell that only he, Kurosaki Shin, could ever know.

The orange-haired teen continued to hug her for what seemed like eternity until he felt it coming.

A quake.

In panic, he tensed and looked up.

On the far end of his vision, he could see construction workers performing some sort of repair on the catwalk.

They were in the middle, and a quake was about to come into impact with a loose catwalk...

He put two and two together... then ran.

* * *

Sakura yelped in surprise as Shin suddenly swept her off her feet and ran for the stairs.

"H-hey! S-Shin~" She was definitely embarrassed being carried like that in public.

* * *

"Ho ho! Have we been discovered? Or are they madly in love enough that they are rushing to a hotel?"

Kazuhiko received another smack.

* * *

Shin wasn't fast enough.

The earthquake had come like a bullet, slamming into the two stairways, causing the entire little bridge to shake and come loose. It was a catwalk meant for couples so they could view the sunset like Shin and Sakura just did; it wasn't a reinforced piece of titanium like everything else.

Sakura screamed.

Kin and Kazuhiko jumped out of the bushes and screamed.

Shin let out a grunt as he tossed Sakura to safety.

* * *

Sakura landed onto the stairway with a thud, landing next to two familiar faces.

"K-Kin-chan? K-Kazu-kun?" She was slowly helped up by her friends. "W-wha..."

She snapped around and looked for her companion.

"Shin!? Shin!" The blue-eyed teenager frantically ran over to the edge and looked down. Half of the catwalk had fallen onto the street below.

The other half was still intact, but slanting towards the ground... with Shin hanging off from the edge.

The three friends shouted at him to hang on.

"Shin! Wait! I-I'm coming!" Sakura kneeled down and tried to search for someway to reach her beloved boyfriend.

"M-Miss!" A construction worker cried out. "Don't! It's too dangerous from your side! I'll try to get to him!"

Kazu, Kin and Sakura could only wait in terror as the worker was slowly lowered on a rope towards Shin, but the distance was still too far.

* * *

Shin was hanging on for dear life as he knew that if he let go he was looking at a thirty foot drop... not to say that he was going to land on solid concrete, possibly metal from the other half of the catwalk.

"Oh... fuck." He looked for a way to climb, but it wasn't possible. His only option was to hang on until someone was able to get him. His time was running out. His fingers were going numb, and he could feel another quake coming. Soon.

"Damn it," a drop of sweat rolled down his face. "Sakura!"

* * *

"Sakura!" She heard her name and immediately focused her attention on Shin.

"H-hold on!" She tried to encourage him in a situation of despair.

"I... I'm sorry..." He struggled to right himself.

"W-wha... what are you saying!? Shin!" Tears of hopelessness ran down her cheeks this time.

At that moment, Kiyodama Sakura could only look as another shake came and Kurosaki Shin let go and slowly began to slide off the edge.

"No... nononono- _**nooooooooo!!!**_"

* * *

"Kah!" A spurt of blood escaped his mouth as he landed on the black road. "U-urgh..."

He had landed completely flat onto his back. Completely stunned, he could do nothing, nor did he feel anything. Trying to lift himself, he attempted to try and exert his muscle power into sitting up. Then he heard a noise to his right.

Turning his head, he heard a screech and saw a bright light... and a tire three feet from his face.

* * *

*The Japanese surname is broken down into two parts. In this case, "Kiyo" means pure, and "dama" means jewel. Sakura's last name literally means "pure jewel."

A/N - Aren't I so evil? Sorry.

All I have to say is, this chapter, despite being the second chapter, was incredibly difficult.

The whole "redo" of the Kazu&Kin pair tailing Shin&Sakura was incredibly difficult. I felt that before, it was too rushed and didn't provide much on characters - not to mention that it made most of the characters seem too shallow. With this, I have completed my mission. Hopefully.

Moving on, the love scene and the whole, "Three Years" going out plan for our main couple was really hard. I had to be consistent with everything from the first chapter, and had to change all the stuff from the other story. In my first version of this story, Shin had asked Aoi (who is now Sakura) out for the first time, and died in a freak shoot-out. Now I have have him already going steady with her, but still _supposedly_ die in the second chapter by natural causes and cheap workmanship on structures. Damn Japanese construction workers for not building stuff right.

Another conflict I had was, "Should I end it at the love-scene/kiss?" or "Should I end at the part where the tire is practically in his face?" Ultimately, I chose the latter because I personally love to leave readers on a cliff-hanger and it makes the story all the more interesting. It does bring them back to find out more doesn't it?

Ending it on the kiss would have been pretty sweet and romantic for all the ladies out there, but there were still struggles as to "Should I end it right where they view the kiss?" or "When Kazu gets smacked?" Love or Comedy? Meh. Too difficult.

But all-in-all. The fact that Shin was unfortunately involved in this horrific accident plays a very, very crucial role to the story.

Because anyone who read my last fanfic knows what happened to him after he died. For the newcomers? Go read it. I left it up for a reason.


	4. Chapter 003: Surgery

Here is the next chapter of Shingami no Seito.

I'm attempting to dramatize these things and stretch out the content to the maximum point without losing the reader's interest.

I'm trying. Hard. lol

* * *

_"Kah!" A spurt of blood escaped his mouth as he landed on the black road. "U-urgh..."_

_He had landed completely flat onto his back. Completely stunned, he could do nothing, nor did he feel anything. Trying to lift himself, he attempted to try and exert his muscle power into sitting up. Then he heard a noise to his right._

_Turning his head, he heard a screech and saw a bright light... and a tire three feet from his face._

* * *

"O-oh God! I-I didn't mean to! T-this can't be!"

A middle-aged man fell to his knees, holding his head in shame. He had unexpectedly run over a high schooler that had somehow... fallen from above.

"No... nonono..." Sakura ran over to her beloved childhood friend and companion... Shin. She could let her mouth quiver and stare with wide eyes. The sight before her was utterly gruesome, the manner of his death almost too cruel for words. Her sapphire-blue eyes continued to tear up at a faster rate, the view of blood reflected upon her pupils.

The blood was everywhere.

His entire head and upper body was immersed in the dark red liquid, which was still spreading over on top of the concrete.

"W-why..." The pink-haired girl felt her legs go weak and dropped to the ground. All motions stopped. "Why did this happen... Why did... Why did this happen..."

She had given him the ring. They were supposed to be together forever.

Now they were going to be apart.

* * *

"G-Goddammit!" Kazuhiko cried out. He could hear the sirens in the distance drawing closer... but he knew it was too late.

"Ohgod...ohgod...ohgod..." Kin could only lean on him as she held in her lunch from coming up.

* * *

"Please step aside! Paramedics have arrived!"

The two paramedical nurses quickly and efficiently unloaded the stretcher as another checked for Shin's vitals.

The nurse frowned, sorry for the quickly performed standard procedures, applying pressure here and there.

Then he ran the scanner over... and his eyes snapped wide open.

"T-triple time! _**He's still alive!**_"

* * *

"T-triple time! He's still alive!"

"...Eh?" Sakura stared at the nurse as if he had grown three heads. Did her ears deceive her?

"Ma'am, are you related to this boy?" The paramedic asked.

"S-still... alive?" Here eyes couldn't have gotten any bigger than they already were.

"Y-yes. Do you know him?"

"I-I..." She couldn't respond. So many thoughts were racing through her mind at once that she ultimately froze in shock.

"She's his boyfriend!" Kazu shouted. He looked down in pain for the situation... and to hide the tears of joy that his best friend had lived. Kin rubbed his back.

"All of you! You're coming in the second ambulence!"

* * *

The three of them waited in front of the emergency room.

Sakura fiddled around with the locket, letting it twirl between her fingers. Occasionaly, every five minutes, she would open it to look inside, then close it again.

She just didn't know what to do. The girl was absolutely thankful that Shin had lived, that much was for sure.

But how would this affect his life? He had fallen from an incredible height, onto his back no less, and had two tires run over his face at about eighty kilometers per hour. Informed that his neck, upper back, tail-bone, legs, and left arm were broken, she just prayed that he survive the surgery. And that wasn't the end of the list. There were other factors like internal bleeding, blood loss, and most dangerously, his fractured skull. It was a miracle it didn't get squished flat under the pressure of a two-thousand pound vehicle traveling at high speed.

_He always did have a thick head._ Sakura giggled to herself. _Like that time..._

* * *

September 24th, 2315.

The beginning of eighth grade had been a great success. Thanks to Shin, she was having an easier time "fitting in". During the entire last third of her seventh grade year, the stubborn boy put up his best effort to unify the class and stop prejudice at its core. He made friends with everyone, did his best to involved the lonely Sakura who was always left out, and made sure she was never hurt emotionally... and if she was, he was there to talk to her about it.

She was truly grateful for what he had done for her. She didn't even know if she would be able to repay him for his kindness.

Sakura sat in class, but to her dismay, Shin sat on the opposite side of class.

But it wasn't a big deal, because everyone was beginning to get along, and didn't make fun of her mixed blood.

"Class, today we have another transfer student. His name is Ueshiro Daisuke," the teacher introduced him, then guided him to the proper seat and began the lesson afterwards.

It was rather boring that day, and the blue-eyed middle-schooler just wanted to go home. Fortunately, she had learned the joys of passing time through doodling on her notes... and passing notes to Shin. This time, however, she wasn't so sure about it because the new kid was sitting next to her. She decided to go with it anyway.

She poked Ueshiro with her pencil eraser to grab his attention.

"Hmm?" He lazily turned his head towards her. The pink-haired girl smiled, then pointed at the paper, then Shin. He groggily nodded and slipped the note onto the next person in the chain.

Mentally humming, Sakura waited patiently for a reply from the bleach-haired boy. She giggled at the thought of what she had written.

"_Happy-day todayyy! Don't you want to go shopping with me after?_"

Daisuke slipped her the note of Shin's reply. Slyly, she unfolded the paper and read it to herself... and frowned. His reply was,

"_Tch, what's so happy about today, especially if I have to hang out with you..._"

She hurriedly wrote a reply back, saying,

"_What do you mean?_" Then she slipped the note to her right. The next reply from him was even worse.

"_You're ugly. Got it? I don't want to hang out with you anymore._"

She simply stared at the note in disbelief. Ugly? Not hang out anymore? What did this mean?

For the rest of the period, she discontinued all work, staring at that one piece of paper. Time rolled by, and soon, the lunch bell rang.

Out of the corner of her eye, Kiyodama Sakura noticed the yellow-eyed one walk over.

"Hey! So you wanted to go shopping after? When do we meet?" He smiled and sat down next to her. She refused to make eye contact. How could he be so friendly after saying all that? She was beginning to get annoyed.

"Um Sakura-chan," Shin tried to look into her eyes, "Did what I said weird you out? Haha, it was just a joke."

That was it.

"What do you mean it was just a joke!" She shouted standing up, drawing the attention of a few students. "H-how could you be so... so heartless!?"

"W-wha? What do you mean..." He looked at her in confusion.

"Don't lie! You told me I was ugly and that I wasn't worth being with! Aren't I your friend!?" Hot tears were beginning to form on the edge of her eyes.

Shin opened, then closed his mouth.

"I... " He looked into her eyes and frowned. "Don't you trust me?"

"What..." her face turned into despair. "I-I thought I could trust _you_..."

She looked up at the students around her. Some stared, others walked away from the scene... and she noticed one peculiar student. His stare was a bit... off.

... and it was directed toward her. He quickly turned, but she didn't miss it. She had seen a glimpse of his... grin.

She wasn't the only one who had seen it.

A fast flash of black and orange blurred across her vision as Shin bolted for Daisuke.

"You!" Shin held the boy by his collar. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything man, chill." He smirked and brushed off the other boy's grip. "I just told that _half-breed _what she needed to hear."

"What." Someone's frown was now becoming into a glare.

"I just said she was ugly man, its the tru-"

He never got to finish the sentence as Shin punched him straight across the face, knocking him down to the floor and caused blood to be shed.

"D-damnit! W-what's your problem, you dick-wad! You got a proble-"

Another punch.

"That's it, you're dead!" The boy rushed Shin, grabbing his arms and began to wrestle for dominance.

The bleach-haired teen bent his knees and braced himself for impact, leaning back... then snapped his head forward. A few girls screamed as they heard a loud, _**smack! **_He threw his head back and gave another headbutt... and another... and another.

By this point, Shin's forehead was severely bleeding, but the Daisuke had given up... more like KO'd from Shin's excessive head-beating.

Swaying and struggling to stand, the orange-haired one bent down and searched the other boy's pockets. Pulling out two sheets of paper, he stood up and wobbled over to Sakura's desk.

She watched as he opened his grip and dropped the two notes on her desk... then watched him walk away and out of the room.

Sakura open up the crumpled pieces of paper and read the writing to herself.

The first, she assumed was the response to her first note and the second to her other note.

"_Yeah, definitely! It'll be fun to hang out with someone as fun as you!_"

"_Well, you're smart, funny, and pretty. I'd wanna be with you always!_"

She realized she had made a grave mistake and ran out to apologize... but couldn't find Shin anywhere. Frantically searching before the lunch period was over, Sakura asked if anyone had seen him. No one knew. She ran to the nurse's office, expecting him to be there. Nope. She ran to the lunch room. Not there either. The courtyard. Not out there. The eighth-grade girl panicked, unable to find her friend. Then she remembered.

_He always hangs out on the roof!_

She dashed toward the nearest set of stairs and climbed.

Opening the door, she burst out onto the roof, breathing heavily from having exerted herself a bit too much.

"S-Shin!" She called for him. "Shin!"

She saw him standing near the fence.

"Shin." She slowly approached him. Sakura felt a little sorry about what she had said to him. She had immediately assumed that he was the perpetrator, not her comrade in the great scheme of things. In the end, she misunderstood the situation and had yelled at Shin for something he didn't do.

_I have to apologize._

"You don't have to say you're sorry," his voice suddenly broke the silence.

"E-eh?" She looked up at him for the unexpected statement, blinking a few times.

"B-but... next time..."

"N-next time?" Sakura leaned in closer.

"...trust me more." A tear rolled down his cheek.

Her sapphire eyes looked at him with an intensity of admiration... then she kissed his cheek. He spazzed out.

"W-wha-wha-what are you doing!?" He threw his hands up in the air, revealing a look of complete surprise.

"T-that..." trying to cover her blush, she put her hands to her face. "... was a thank-you gift. Y-you won't get too many of those..."

"U-uh..." Shin was reddening himself. Then he relaxed and gave her a hug, which elicited a yelp from her.

"W-what are you doing!?"

"I'm returning the favor," He smiled with one eye open. The blood was getting into his other eye.

"U-um, are you okay?" She worried about his wound... and his mental health. He was always getting poor grades... maybe this was the reason.

"Yeah, I have a hard head, don't worry. I'll use it to protect you! Hahah!" Shin let out a big laugh.

"Hmm? You sure?" Sakura let out a little giggle, "You're going to be suspended for what you did to that poor idiot. You sure you can still protect me then?"

She raised an eyebrow.

"Uh... umm..." He could only laugh at the situation.

She couldn't help but laugh along. After all, she had rediscovered her best friend... and someone to like.

* * *

Sakura smiled as she recalled the memory of Shin's declaration to protect her... and the warmth of his hug. The pink-haired teen could only hope to that he would now live to remember the memory as well. She and the two friends beside her prayed for his life and a safe return. They were concentrating so hard that they didn't even notice the parents walk in on the scene.

"Sakura," a deep voice called to her.

"Huh?" The three of them looked up. Sakura noticed her dad walking next to her mother... and Shin's parents right beside them.

"Perfect timing," another voice called out from the door. The doctor had come out. "The parents are here."

"My son!" Shin's father cried out. "My son! I-Is he okay!?"

The doctor sighed, "I have good news... and I have bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"

It became as silent as a grave.

* * *

A/N: Yup. I decided to end it right there, because, 1) It's two in the morning. 2) It makes a great cliffhanger. 3) You all should be eager enough to leave reviews by now.

Oh yeah, I turned on Anonymous Reviews, so now anyone can review. Have fun!


	5. Chapter 004: Activate

Well, took a while because I had to take a break to recollect my thoughts.

As you already know, I am a great procrastinator. I didn't feel like writing this chapter until waaay later, but I told myself: "If there is one more review than when I checked last time, I guess I'll write the next chapter today." Lo and behold, Dual_Wielder99 gave me a very inspiring review, and I have been invigorated with energy to write! Also, Dom Fenix, despite the notion that my other story is better, I will do everything in my writing power to make this story better.

Long story short, what you guys have been reading now is only the intro to the true story. The true story begins later within this chapter... lucky you.

And another thing.

_The doctor sighed, "I have good news... and I have bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"_

_It became silent as a grave._

It really become silent if you don't post reviews! haha.

Seriously speaking, will Shin die here and become like his ancestor Ichigo? Or will he live and discover the true path of a living Shinigami?

BTW, I had a review that made a comment about chapters being too short. I only write them long when the storyline has reached a point of high interest and importance to the plot/characters/etc. So if one of you drop by to read my fanfic and find that the page is extremely long for some reason, it means you should pay attention... more.

Oh yeah... it's time for our Doctor to make an appearance...

* * *

"I have good news... and I have bad news. Which do you want to hear first?" The man sweat as the rather large group of four adults and three teenagers before him tensed and froze like a deer in headlights. He was rather nervous about telling them. He hoped that they picked the good news first.

"Uh..." a man, the fourth from his left, spoke out. "T-the good news." He lowered his eyes.

"Are you the boy's father?" The doctor assumed so... and sighed in relief as they picked the good news.

"Y-yes... I am Kurosaki Takeshi... and this is my wife," Takeshi gestured to her, "Manami."

The doctor observed the couple. Then he turned to the first two people on his left.

"Who are you?"

"I am Kiyodama Satoru," the man answered.

"And I am Kiyodama Kimiko," the woman replied, "We're here to check on Sakura." She pointed to the blue-eyed girl.

"You're not taking her home?" The doctor raised his eyebrow.

"No," Kimiko responded to his question sternly, "Shin and Sakura are - ahem." The woman blushed and raised a pinky*.

"M-mom!" Sakura tried to cover up the embarrassment, but failed as they laughed. Everyone did, lifting the tension.

"Good to see that my patient has such a loving wif- I mean girlfriend."

"Doctor!" She glared at him.

"Okay, okay..." the doctor grumbled. _So much for jokes._

"So," Kurasaki Takeshi whispered. "What is the bad news?"

The father's comment immediately ruined the hopefully good atmosphere that had appeared. It was as thick as ice again.

"Hold on," the doctor raised his hands, "I didn't even get to the good news yet. So the good news... is that Shin is alive, and will make way towards a full physical recovery."

Sakura, Kazuhiko, and Kin all jumped up and shouted in joy. It was such a relieving moment when the doctor revealed to them that their friend would live and be well. Too have lost him would have been too painful for all of them to handle... almost irreparable. Kazu thanked the gods for such a miracle. At that moment, two more people entered the scene.

"Masao-kun! Harumi-chan!" Sakura and Kin ran over to their other friends. "Shin is going to live!"

"That is good to hear," the student president announced, "I shall have to stop by some other time and drop off some fruit."

"F-fruit, Masao-kun?" Harumi let a sweat-drop roll down her forehead. "Aren't there other things for teenage boys to look at- I mean eat! Eat!" Harumi suddenly realized her error and waved her hands in distress as Sakura sent her a destructive glare.

Acting as if he had not heard, Masao continued, "Yes, fruit is a good snack. Various fruits are full of vitamins and nutritious substances that are quite beneficial to human body. From various test studies and research..."

"Yes, yes," Kin cut him off, waving her hand, "We know."

"No you don't," Masao smirked, "That is why I am telling you... you dumb blonde."

"Guh-" Her forehead veins bulged in annoyance. "Why you!" She reached for him, only to find that she could not, as Harumi was pushing her away.

"Now, now, Kin-chan," Harumi smiled eerily, "calm yourself. Or I will have to do it _for you_..." She grinned evilly.

The parents just stared as their children and friends playfully argued and conversed among themselves. It was a joyful moment as Sakura's parents watched her grow, make friends, and most of all, fall in love. Satoru and Kimiko both felt a strong love for their daughter, making sure that she was walking the path best fit for her. Even more joyous than that, when the two of them discovered that the son of their best friends was "courting" their daughter, the parents couldn't help but be elated. Satoru, despited his cold looks, was a warm-hearted person and was looking forward to the two's future... maybe even being called "grandfather" someday. He chuckled to himself.

"So," Manami regained a worried look, "What is-"

"Hold on a moment, sorry." The doctor reached into his pocket and answered his cell phone.

They all watched him speak, his face making contractions of all sorts strains and cramps.

"Yes sir... I know sir...

...but he only just got out of...

yes sir... I will, sir...

Goodbye."

The doctor furiously put away his cellular device and began to rush away.

"Wait, what is going on!?" Kurosaki Manami shouted pleadingly at the doctor. "What is the bad news!?"

* * *

He couldn't believe it.

Dr. Kenichi was absolutely enraged.

A patient that he had just performed surgery on for six hours was now claimed to be government property! Preposterous! How could such a thing be!?

What, the USCA couldn't get enough men to draft or volunteer so now they're going to abduct hospital patients? The boy was underage for Christ's sake! Only seventeen! He had no idea what a war was really like! The doctor sat down in his office chair, and began to pull out documents, with all those wild thoughts zooming through his head. He flipped a pen out of its holder and began to write away, scribbles here and there, signing papers left and right. He had to call in a professional. No - a professional was already on his way; he was on the phone with an official just moments ago.

They said that they were going to pick one young adolescent patient with "special cases" from each prefecture of Japan.

"Special case my ass." The man wiped his brow.

He hadn't even gotten the chance to tell the Kurosaki family that Shin was suffering from amnesia.

* * *

"What's taking that the doc so long?" Kazu mumbled under his breath.

"Maybe he had another emergency patient." Harumi shrugged.

"Most likely, but I don't get the feeling that it is." Masao stared into the direction that the doctor had gone.

Sakura simply looked up to the two sets of parents and wondered what was going to happen to Shin.

* * *

The doctor put on his spare set of equipment and surgery clothing. Slipping on his mask, he hated to have to do this sort of thing. It was such terrible sin to commit, making this happen.

But he had no choice, it wasn't his decision to make.

His eyes turned a bit gloomy as he thought of the upset and crying faces he would see after he was done.

_Damn the USCA science authorities. Damn them._

* * *

The seven of them were talking amongst each other, wondering what Shin's condition was. Until the red Emergency Room light came on with a blaring noise.

Their heads turned, their eyes attracted to the light like moths to a flame. Why was Shin's ER light active again?

Hearing footsteps down the hall, the teenagers and parents watched as the same doctor, along with another doctor, and a team of nurses rushed into the room.

"Wait!" They cried, "What's going on!? Is Shin okay?"

"Emergency Operation! His brainwaves went into a relapse!" He shouted back.

Then the doors shut.

* * *

_What the hell is going on?_ Takeshi thought to himself. _Is Shin alright?_

_Damn._

He paced back and forth, watching as Sakura teared up again, and the mood plummeted.

Would this work out? Would Shin survive?

"Will this ever end?"

* * *

"Alright, hand me the electric shaver..."

Kenichi handed the other doctor... the USCA _professional_. The vein in the man's forehead throbbed as he handed it over. He was absolutely against the whole idea of what they were about to do. It went against his very beliefs! But once again, it wasn't up to Dr. Kenichi to decide... the operation was now in the hands of Dr. Michael Yager. The American bastard comes in under the orders of the USCA Advanced Scientists League with permission from the government to come and perform this horrible _experiment_.

As Yager shaved off the boy's bleached hair, Kenichi thought deep thoughts to himself.

What the two of them were doing was dangerous.

"Head shaved, hand me the marker." The doctor handed the scientist the marker.

Not dangerous in the sense that it would cost them millions of dollars if it went wrong, nor would it mean dangerous as in law suits and court cases.

"Head schematics marked successfully and swabbed with anesthetics. Proceeding to Second Phase." Dr. Michael was handed the drill by the nurse and then he lined up the device to his forehead.

This single operation would endanger the patient, the two doctors, and possibly other patients within the hospital.

"Heh... heheh..." Dr. Kenichi chuckled in nervousness to himself.

Good thing there were about fourteen troops of Japanese Ground Defense Forces surrounding the area.

* * *

Sakura stared with an gaze of steel at the double doors to Shin's room.

She concentrated hard for any sounds that may give any clues to her lover's condition. The blue-eyed girl strained her ears with amazing force, almost to the point that she was sweating.

People talking. Footsteps clacking. Wheelchairs rolling. Monitors beeping. Doors opening. Old men snoring.

Herself breathing. Her heart beating. Her mind racing.

She couldn't hear anything that could possible give her a hint to what was going on. And then...

"Restrain him!" muffled voices and screaming came from inside the ER.

"AAAARRAAAHHH!" A very familiar, seventeen year-old voice boomed from behind the locked doors.

More screaming occurred, but this time, it wasn't Shin. It was the voices of several men and women sounding like they were shouting for their lives.

"Tranquilizer! Tranquilizer! Restrain him! Restr-aaaaaiiiiaahhhhh..."

Boom... Boom. The doors dented outwards, but held as an eerie silence took over the hallway.

* * *

"W-what's going on?" Kin whispered. "W-what's happening..."

"G-guys..." Kazu suddenly got the gut feeling that something definitely wasn't right. "Masao." He looked at his friend, and motioned his chin to the right of the hallway, towards the elevator. "Let's go... now..."

"W-what?" The parents themselves where just as confused as they were. But Kazuhiko wasn't about to let his gut instinct become true.

"Just go!" Another boom, another dent in the door. "Go! Now!"

Everyone began to run. However, Sakura stayed behind, trying to debate on whether to wait for her boyfriend or leave.

"Sakura, we don't have time for this. I know you want to see Shin, but now is not the time. We have to-"

Kazu froze as he was interrupted by unknown sound from within the Emergency Room. A huge growl emanated from behind the huge steel doors.

"P-please... c-calm down..." the female voice whimpered. "I-I have a family... let me go... let me go... please... wait... wait... wait... wait, wait, wait, wai-wai-wai-wai-wai WAAAAIIIIITTT GAAAAAHHHH!!!!!"

The doors suddenly burst outward as a woman nurse tried to limp out. Her side was pouring blood. Suddenly, a quick blur of motion grabbed the nurse's ankle and began to drag her in.

"NNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" She screamed. She screamed for her life as her nails clawed at the floor, leaving trail of fingernail marks as she was slowly pulled into the darkness.

At the sight of terror before them, the two friends froze, unable to move or comprehend what had just happened.

"W-wha..." Before Kazu could even react, he heard hundreds of footsteps from both sides of the hallway. Snapping their heads in each direction, Kazuhiko and Sakura both saw many Japanese soldiers, armed and ready, come in and take positions around the open doors.

One soldier came and greeted them.

"Alright, kids, you gotta leave this area, pronto. It ain't safe here."

"What are you talking about..."

"Don't play 'stupid' with me, you just saw what happened, I didn't miss that. Now git. Red-One, take these two downstairs and outside. Go!"

Immediately, several hands grabbed the two of them, and dragged them away against their will. No matter how much Sakura and Kazu wanted to stay and see Shin, they could not, for they were not allowed.

* * *

"Alright..." the man in charge turned toward the darkened Emergency Room. "Blue-One, take point. Green Team, get their flank. Gold Team, left, Violet, right."

He took a deep breath. If anything happened here, there was still Red Team... along with the other nine teams on the ground outside.

"Go!"

Each team slowly followed blue team in. It was rather large inside, but dark. Everyone flipped on their night vision, while a few activated their heat vision.

"Blue Team, clear."

"Gold, clear."

"Violet, clear."

"Green..." Green-One blinked as he thought he saw something move in the shadows to his right. He shined his flashlight in that general direction. Nothing. "Clear."

"That's odd..." Blue One knelt down as he saw a the door of a wide locker shaking ever so slightly. "Blue Two and Three, cover me. Four, get my back."

He slowly walked over to the door, and pushed it open with the barrel of his rifle. Inside, was a hospital doctor.

"Leader, this is Blue One, we have a survivor... Looks like he's in shock. Approaching." The Blue Team leader walked over to the Doctor and reached out. The man remained frozen in place, refusing to come out. "Come on, its safe..."

"No..." the doctor's voice whispered... "No..." His finger trailed upwards toward the ceiling.

"What?" Blue One looked up. "Shit."

A figure dropped down and began to tear at his face. Bullets fired and soldiers frantically tried to get a shot on the being, but failed, as they didn't want to hit the Blue Team member.

* * *

The leader and his team looked into the room as chaos broke loose. A dark shadow zipped from side to side, speedily dodging bullets at god-speed.

"...the hell?" He tried to gauge the situation. He couldn't. The soldier took out his satellite phone and began to dial.

* * *

"Damnit! FIRE! FIRE AT WILL!" Men shouted left and right, trying to catch the monster.

The doctor began to run toward the exit, hoping to make it out in time. He didn't. Kurosaki Shin, or whatever he had become, tackled him from behind.

"Arrgh..." Dr. Kenichi wrestled for his life, trying to keep the fiend's hands from clasping around his throat. One hand, kept Shin's hands away. The other was pushing against Shin's to inject a tranquilizer serum to stop the enraged boy.

Bullets hit into the boy's back, making the human monster cry out.

The doctor seized his chance and stabbed, pressing down on the needle to fully inject all of the formula.

The body went limp and toppled on top of him.

Dr. Kenichi closed his eyes as he went unconscious.

* * *

His mind came into being.

He, whoever 'he' was, did not know 'himself', nor did he know 'where' he was, or how he got 'there'. He simply 'was'.

He did not know 'when' or 'why', simply that he was 'there'.

It was dark.

Then a light source appeared, and he concentrated his self upon it. Upon the source of light, he 'saw' a cluster of 'markings'. The light was rather a weird 'shape'.

He did know what it meant.

It 'said', "SYSTEM: BOOT". More symbols appeared.

"..." Then again, "..."

"SYSTEM OS: EXECUTE...

SYSTEM AI: EXECUTE

KIRA: KENSEIGAN INTEGRATED RAMIFICATION ASSESSMENT"

He 'felt' another being such as himself enter his own 'presence' and take over. He did not know 'how' or 'why', but simply that it was. The more that this other 'presence' invaded his, he felt he understood more and more about what was going on.

"... ACCESSING Q-GEN SYSTEM HARDWARE...

... LISTING PARTS:

MECHANICAL:

QUANTUM GENERATOR

BIONIC EYE (2X), LIGHT SENSOR

NASAL SENSOR

SOUND SENSOR

RADAR SENSOR

WIRELESS SENSOR

HEAT RADIATOR"

Then he watched several 'words' appear before him, the 'list' continuing for a long time. Then it stopped and continued a new 'list'.

"ORGANIC:"

He observed as more 'words' came into existence within the 'dark' and listed every part of his 'body'... whatever that was.

"SYSTEM CHECK COMPLETE

...

... EXECUTE"

Then he felt a huge surge of... something. Whatever it was, he know 'knew" everything that was going on. The alphabet, words, the characters, the markings, the languages, the customs, the skills, the techniques, the mannerisms, the behaviors, the light, darkness, the executes, the programs... although he thoroughly did not understand why, he felt as if he knew what each and every one of those markings 'meant' or 'said'. He continued to watch the words appear.

COMMAND PROTOCOL... ... EXECUTE"

He then felt a huge surge of more 'knowledge'. But it was different. This information set aside 'rules' that controlled the actions of his very being. It indicated what he should do or not do, considering the situation at any given time. Who he was to obey, how he should do something, and where. He knew that Dr. Jacob Archibald was his 'master'. He kept watching for more of this... 'knowledge' to flow in.

"... ACCESS DENIED... PASSWORD REQUIRED"

'He' questioned himself as to why this occurred. Searching for his newly gained 'knowledge', he looked for an 'answer'. Unfortunately, it was not found.

"... SKIP"

He grew 'angry', an emotion he learned from the information gained. It was an emotion used to express one's frustration in a situation, usually when one was wronged somehow.

Well, 'he' was being wronged, being denied this coveted information. He could not linger upon that problem, as the next set of words came into his... he searched for the word... 'Consciousness'.

"SYSTEM FINALIZE... ABS: ADVANCED BIO-ENGINEERED SOLDIER... ACTIVATE."

Suddenly, he felt a rush of 'coolness' against his 'skin'.

"Hello," he 'heard'. The voice, as his knowledge had classified, then called out to somewhere else. He couldn't tell, as his 'eyes' were 'closed'.

"Doctor Archibald, he's awake. I don't think he quite understands what is going on..."

"It's okay," another voice came from his 'left', speaking to his 'right'. "The Beta OS was a success and the mutational virus is contained. It has now transformed him into this... and 'KIRA' activated... Hello, KIRA."

"He's not responding..." the voice sounded 'worried'.

"He's just getting used to the knowledge installation that he received. Give it time."

So he was 'KIRA', the 'other being'. Whatever that program was, 'he' and 'it' were now one being. How strange. It was no longer able to be sensed, so he guessed he really did become this 'KIRA' program... only, according to his knowledge, he was a human being... or an Advanced Bio-engineered Soldier.

"Come on, KIRA..." the voice on his left spoke again.

As the new being, KIRA, he accessed all the system memory within himself, and accessed his body parts. They moved and did anything at will.

He opened his 'eyes'.

"Oh!" the two 'men' stared at him in surprise.

Upon opening them, within his field of view, he saw a HUD: Heads Up Display. Within it was all sorts of things: his heart rate, signal strengths, information packets, radar sensors, heat sensors, graphical and geographical view, voice monitors, and much more. His 'head' was spinning due to this complexity.

He now attempted to use his voice.

"I-I..." it was groggy, and unfocused.

"Ooooh..." the two men leaned in, very intrigued by their specimen. "Come on... speak..."

"I-I..." He attempted to strain his voice on how he wanted it to sound.

"W-what is it... ABS-131?" Dr. Archibald asked quietly, in fear of disturbing KIRA's efforts.

"I... I want the password."

* * *

A/N: You know it was a good chapter. Although the ending of this chapter may have been confusing for some of you, it was written exactly the way I wanted to portray KIRA's situation.

For example, imagine that your consciousness just 'awakens' without any knowledge, memory, or capability to access anything. That is why there are quotation marks around some of the words to emphasize the fact that KIRA at that point does not know what those things are, until he gains the .bip (biological installation program) of Knowledge. Without it, he is simply a drone, unable to know anything but how to ponder... but without knowledge, how does he ponder? He is like a baby, not thinking in words, but with self presence and image.

Once he gains 'Knowledge' he is able to think in words, and form questions, and know what he is feeling or doing. With this, he is able to understand the other installed programs and their functions.

It was during this point that I wanted to show you guys the true turning point of Shin into KIRA. Shin loses everything, and becomes the ABS-131, the hundred and thirty first Advanced Bio-engineered Soldier of Dr. Jacob Archibald's experiments...

... the first and last true success of the Doctor's human monsters.


	6. Chapter 005: Data

Yes, as most of you may have guessed, there was a bit of a "time skip" between the hospital massacre and the activation of ABS-131, KIRA.

Of course, I left out that part so I can use it later in my fanfic. I read a few reviews over, and I saw that someone had a rather interesting question.

Darth Hawk 32: Just wondering, are any of the characters from the manga going to show up in this version?

Well, considering that this is a rewrite of my previous story, where the other characters did show up, and that the character selection is labeled as Ichigo/Inoue, you can pretty much guess that almost every character from the manga will make an appearance. Especially Urahara. That guy is funny lol.

The appearance of Ichigo and Orihime are very important... noting that Shin is their descendant... and he will become a Shinigami... just not now, and he isn't dead yet.

To Knives91, "yeah, it does suck to be that nurse." Tsk tsk tsk.

Now for Chapter 05! Enjoy!

* * *

"Right arm, check. Now please raise your other hand."

He lifted his left arm, opening his palm toward the ceiling.

"Okay, now move your fingers..."

He wiggled each of his fingers, closing each and then opening as the next one pressed down on his palm.

"...Check. Now that your physical diagnostics is over... Now face me, and stare into the light."

A beam of light radiated from the flashlight into his eyes.

"Alright... Bionic Eyes seem to be functional... now change colors."

He opened the "Eye Function" menu from his HUD and selected the "Color Menu". From there, he selected "Diagnostic Test". The color of his vision did not change, but a little status indicator told him what color his eyes where at the moment.

"That's seems good... now night vision."

He reopened the menus and picked another menu from there, "Tactical View". Then he chose "Night Vision". His sense of light heightened as shadows disappeared, and his field of view became greenish.

"Um... alright, seems to increase the brightness within the lenses of your eyes... but that's not really a problem..."

He continued to keep the night vision active until instructed to turn it off.

"Now heat vision."

Once again, he opened the "Tactical View" menu and selected that one. His vision immediately became a dark hue of blue, and he saw the doctor's red body heat, as well as other machines that gave off hot temperatures.

"That looks fine, other than the fact that there are some specks of red... that's not a big problem either..."

He simply sat in the chair, waiting for the next command.

"Now X-Ray... that seems normal."

He waited as he observed the inner structures of everything within the room with hardened densities.

"Now this will be cool, close your eyes and activate the sound vision."

He activated it. Everything was dark. Then he began to _see _the vibrations emanating from each object in the room. However, those that did not move or emit a sound, he could not see.

"Okay... now open your eyes and activate your targeting system... uh no, your general targeting..."

Shin switched back to his main HUD view and turned on the feature. A bunch of three-dimensional squares enclosed almost every object within the room, including the doctor before him. Then some of those squares began to disappear as the objects enclosed were not weapons, living beings, or objectives.

"Oh that's pretty... I see a bunch of sparkles... you can use that to get the ladies, heheh..."

He simply stared at the doctor.

"Okay, okay... now... this is the tricky part. Enable your Energy Surge Protection, and then enable your Spirit Energy feature."

He did just as the doctor asked him to. As soon as he did, he felt a burst of energy flow through him from the very core of his being... it was... indescribable. He felt power, strength, concentration, and a few other things.

"Alright, the increased brightness in your eyes tell me it worked?"

He nodded, just barely.

"And now... enable your Spirit Tracker."

He did. Upon doing so, orbs appeared on his HUD. According the doctor before him, they were so-called "souls" or "spirits". He was rather confused, as they had no mass nor did they have an appearance to them.

"Now, enable your Spirit Tracker's second feature."

Upon doing so, he saw where the orbs had been, blurry figures took their place. He gasped, and then his field of vision went blank.

"Ah, damnit. Alright, reboot your vision..."

He did just so.

"What did you see? KIRA?"

"I... Dr. Borvinski... I saw..." He tried to use his voice, but was too surprised to say anything properly.

"Saw what?" The man looked into his eyes, checking for anomalies.

"I saw... blurry... it was blurry, but... I think I saw a man and a woman..."

"A man and a woman?"

"Yes...the man, he was garbed in some black... robe? and a white sash was around his waist... and he wore a large white overcoat. He had orange hair, that I know... the woman..."

"The woman?" Dr. Rousseau Borvinski asked him inquiringly. "What about her?"

"She wore a gown of white with black lines... I couldn't tell... it was too blurry... she had brownish-orange hair... and something blue... shining from her head... I think it was a hair pin... not sure..."

The doctor looked at him, knowing that whatever KIRA saw, it had disoriented him.

"Alright, KIRA, let's try to refrain from using that feature for now, we'll try to do it later..." he sighed.

"Yes sir," KIRA answered.

* * *

"ABS-131 shows signs of being able to detect the 'Spirit Beings', but due to the lack of stability within the hardware, he can't maintain the vision long enough."

"But if he could output more spiritual energy..."

"Yes, theoretically speaking... but I fear it may damage circuits within the Bionic Eye if he did so."

The two leading scientists of the USCA science department, Dr. Jacob Archibald and Dr. Rousseau Borvinski, were discussing the matter of KIRA's ability to see the beings of the unexplainable phenomenons... Many soldiers on the brink of death claimed that they had seen angels and demons on the battlefield. Unfortunately, it was unable to be proven, until the scientists entered the scene.

With Dr. Archibald's superior genetic and biological knowledge, they removed the brains of each "witness". With Dr. Borvinski's skill in the technological department, they attached the nerves of each brain to machinery and circuitry, enabling the two of them to look into the dead brain.

It was like looking into a vast, and unending library, searching for something that was not in the human language or numbers. Instead, they found collections of images. Images of the soldiers emotions, thoughts, memories, and experiences. Through this, they were able to "decode" the mind of man. As confusing as it was, it was possible, and it was done. With over forty different brain subjects, they had managed to transform the language of the brain into computer coding.

With that, they found numerous images of the "Spirit Beings". Some, looked like ordinary men and women, all garbed in some form of black clothing, and a few of them with white overcoats. They all held swords... or what looked like swords. One sword took the shape of an icy dragon. Another the shape of cherry blossoms. Some that transformed into other weapons. Some that became larger, differentiated swords.

One of the swords even looked like a huge cleaver... wielded by an orange-haired fellow.

Although everyone of these beings wielded a bladed weapon or so, there were a small select few that had not drawn their katana, but instead, chose to use some sort of... _magic_.

Even more interesting... or fearful as one should say, were the _beasts_ that these men-like beings fought against.

Collossal, gigantic monsters. Small, agile fiends. Some in between. However, regardless of their size, all the beasts shared one quality. They all wore masks.

From the images, the two scientists could easily tell that the human-like "Spirit Beings" were outnumbered, five to one. Even so, they held their ground in an even match between what men called, "angels versus demons".

It was spiritual war going on in the midst of the physical world, right on Earth.

What had caused this outburst of spiritual phenomena?

As USCA science department officials had guessed, it was the deaths of countless number of soldiers from the war between the European Federation Alliance and the Russian-Asian League, otherwise known as the Soviet-Asian League, with a little bit of United Space Forces mixed in.

The deaths of uncountable men and women had led to the birth of spiritual soldiers, continuing the warfare even in the "next life".

Thus, the purpose of the ABS Project shifted to the development of KIRA, with the Kenseigan: the Analysis Eye. With it, they hoped to observe and fend off humanity from these monsters if need be.

That was not all that KIRA would be used for. It would be used to hopefully end this dreaded war and bring peace to the world, which coincided with the hopes of the USCA and its armed interventions.

They had hoped that more like Kurosaki Shin would be produced. However, out of all the prefectures and patients in Japan, he was the only survivor and success... out of a fluke. All other patients died because the Adaptive Mutational Virus Serum. The AMVS was meant to transform the genes of the subject and add in an extra chromosome. Unfortunately for the the other handful of teenagers, they all died due to the brainwaves sending commands to the immune system to kill the infected cells. It was basically a self-induced, rapid-fire cancer... Fortunately, it was contained, as the virus was only transferable by direct contact of bodily fluids.

However, in Shin's case, something went unfortunately wrong... or in Dr. Archibald's case, fortunately right.

During the time of the surgery, the professional sent in deemed it necessary to directly implement the virus into the brain, and not into the vein of the arm. It was this crucial decision that invoked the success as the brain was "converted" and was unable to emit commands to the nerves to tell the immune system to initiate its defenses. Instead, the brain ordered the cells to help the process along and submit to the virus's mutation. However, because of the transformation of the brain, Kurosaki Shin's ability to make proper thought and judgment was impaired... reducing him to nothing more than a savage-like beast.

In the event of his transformation, the seventeen year old teenager gained enhanced reflexes, vision, strength, speed, and even his process of primitive thought. And with the an extra regeneration ability, the natural limiters on his muscles were reduced from twenty percent to a mere ten.

Although the regeneration, coupled with the tearing of fibers from the reduced limiters, would rapidly increase Shin's toxic build-up in the cells, another genetic piece of coding was thrown in.

Dr. Archibald researched snakes and their ability to gather toxins from their bodies into a cavity within their skulls... Snakes would grow and remain healthy as long as they lived. Why? Venomous snakes would release the build-up of harmful substances into their prey... eliminating the toxins from their own bodies and ensuring growth and a healthy status.

Using this particular trait, the regeneration would have no effect on the body, as the body's natural poisons would be stored in the subject's artificially created sacs above the genetically lengthened canine teeth. Like a snake, the bio-engineered subject would be able to inject the toxins into other beings, or possibly squirt it out at enemies like the African King Cobra.

The two scientists had to remove Shin's brain because of its "damaged" state. They extracted as much information as they could and stored it within one of the installation files for the KIRA project: .

It was one of the only files denied to KIRA... the ones he wanted the "password" for. Unfortunately, both men decided he wasn't "ready" yet as it would bring back his knowledge of his former love interest, and that would definitely complicate things.

Speaking of installation files, after removing his brain, the team led by Dr. Archibald kept Shin's body alive through life support and began to build the Quantum Generator under Dr. Borvinski's supervision.

The Quantum Generator was basically an ultimate supercomputer, but with the capabilities of human likeness. It would function like any other brain... but with more computer-like symptoms and functions, as the HUD proved. The process of thought would be handled instantaneously to keep up with the ABS's heightened reflexes, for if the soldier couldn't think as fast as he could move, then the subject would be a failure in general.

KIRA, was both a blessing and curse. As a success, KIRA was able to show the ability to express desire and self-awareness. The test subject passed nearly every test, and was the ideal "super soldier".

As a curse, he was the only one of his kind.

Fortunately, Dr. Archibald had another serum that was implemented during the early phases of development. It was another series of viruses compatible with the AMVS: the reproductive formula.

With this, KIRA would be able to reproduce more of "his kind" with other human females... but the controls for the sexual drive in the Q-Gen would have to be activated, and without the password, it remained off.

Also, KIRA possessed suppressed emotions. Even if the body emitted natural chemicals for the feelings of emotions, without the activation sequences in the Q-Gen, which also required a password, they remained turned off. So KIRA would never fully experience the joys and pains of happiness and fear. In a way, it would make him the most rational and practical soldier on the battlefield.

There were many implications to be dealt with when it came to ABS-131, KIRA.

Could he be contained? Could he gain the status as a "morality-booster" in the military? Would he succeed as a soldier?

Would he become the ideal human being?

Dr. Archibald and Dr. Borvinski could only hope so.

* * *

"SYSTEM SEARCH:

Q_GEN... FUNCTION...

BUILD PROGRAM... COMPILING...

EXECUTE...

PASSWORD CRACK: FAILURE..."

KIRA's lips tightened around the edges as his attempts at trying to generate a password failed several times. Using the his mechanical brain's super-processing power, he wrote a program from scratch coding. The program's only function was to try and generate a password anywhere from seven to sixteen characters, in the English alphabet, binary, octal, and hexadecimal number systems... and even a combination of all four. The possibilities were endless.

He let out a wireless signal to a nearby computer.

"Q_GEN... FUNCTION...

HACK...

4096 BIT ENCRYPTION...

USCA COMMAND LOGS... HACKING... HACKING... HACKING...

COMMAND PROTOCOL VIOLATION...

... CONTINUE? YES NO

That was odd... KIRA stared at his HUD monitor and wondered why it would even give him the choice to violate a software-implemented law.

He chose YES.

* * *

"Isn't it amazing..." Dr. Jacob Archibald breathed out, "... that KIRA is able to signs of self-awareness?"

"Hm?" Dr. Rousseau Borvinski looked up from his desk, stopping his typing.

"I said-"

"No, I heard you... It was the question itself that piqued my interest."

"Hmph." The older man turned around. "It is definitely interesting... He has a mechanical brain, but shows signs of want and desire, as well as will power."

"Mmm... yes," the other man resumed his work. "It seems that even if the brain is removed, the soul remains. How odd. And here I thought the mind and soul were connected."

"Aren't they?"

"Well, maybe. We can't know for sure. We could say the soul is the source of life and the mind another part of it to determine things such as want, desire, and will, and whatever else that exists in that field... but we have insufficient data."

"Funny..." Dr. Archibald stared at a computer monitor. "We're being hacked."

"What?"

"I said-"

"I know what you said! Who!?"

"What?"

"Not what? Who! Who is hacking us!?"

"Um... I believe it is KIRA... most interesting..."

"...

...that is interesting..."

"He can even disobey Command Protocols that would control his very nature..."

* * *

He was in.

KIRA "looked around" within the database of the entire network. It revealed to him every bit of information he could ever want!

Although... no files specifically on him were found. What he did find, however, were documents on other test subjects like himself and their medical records.

They... what was the word? ..._disturbed_ him.

Other records listed that he was under the direct supervision of the United Space Colonies of America, and it's government... or rather, a bunch of radicals within the government that called for the use of extreme or profound force against he Soviet-Asian League and the European Federation Alliance.

It listed his whereabouts-

KIRA stopped in his data-tracks.

Space?

He was in space?

Hacking into the security network, he accessed nearby cameras that encircled in and out of the area. He saw rooms, people, medical bays, cafeterias, locker rooms, recreational areas. The bio-engineered soldier then used the cameras to see _outside_.

There he saw the void, glittered with white specks.

Within it, far, far below, he saw the Earth and Moon.

* * *

A/N - I have nothing to say. Other than that this explained why Shin went crazy in the hospital when he did, and that this will lead to another series of events, spiraling toward the environment of... whoops, almost gave away a spoiler!

Now... where are my reviews?


	7. Chapter 006: Mission Plan

Looking down on Earth from space must be a very beautiful moment for KIRA right now. I envy him, as he looks down from above, enjoying the Zero-G of space.

Space is a wonderful thing, that is... if you're not alone.

Now, for the purpose of story, I have induced another time-skip. No, its not a long one, just a bit short... Okay, I lied. It's about a year. Only a year! Nothing much has changed much other than the fact that the ABS Project is near completion, and the soldiers are now entering their first USCA Armed Intervention.

* * *

"ABS-131, your Blast-Pod is secure. Step in now."

"ABS-132, your Blast-Pod is secure. Step in now."

"ABS-133, your Blast-Pod is secure. Step in now."

"ABS-134..." "ABS-135..." "ABS-136..." "ABS-137..."

KIRA listened to the automated female voice from the intercom repeated the same order to every soldier around him. It continued, listing on unto the last soldier. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on some data.

"ABS-185..." "ABS-186..." "ABS-187..." "ABS-188..."

"ABS-189, your Blast-Pod is secure. Step in now."

"ABS-190, your Blast-Pod is secure. Step in now." All fifty-nine soldiers had entered their pods.

It was July 4th, 2320. They were Advanced Biological Soldiers, prepped and ready for war.

Within the last decade, it had been foreseen that the current world that humanity lived in was no longer suitable for peace amongst sovereign powers. As the Russians, or the newly revived Soviet Union combined with the Chinese and other conquered lands of the Asian continent, they formed a new government and alliance. Politically, they call themselves the SAL. Unofficially to the other nations, they are RAL. Next to the SAL, the EFA completely took control of the African Continent, and part of the Antarctic.

Their dispute started with the simple desire for fuel. The world's longest-running supply of fuel. It goes by many names: black gold, the flaming water, cash in a barrel, and such. Simply, it is oil. What began as a dispute over the need for this oil, spawned the world's most dangerous world war without the use of nuclear weapons. But even without nuclear weapons, other technologies made the safest havens into rubble, the fully equipped soldier to a stripped prisoner, and an innocent bystander into a desperate beggar. As a result, hundreds... thousands... millions died. But humans were deemed, "dispensable" as the population count was over its limits.

So, as long as there were people to use, the war continued.

Then the phenomena began.

All over the world, even in non-war participant countries, strange, unexplainable events began to occur. Flashes of white. Explosions. Visions. Catastrophes. Witnesses.

As soldiers on the battlefield died, they screamed, "Demons! Angels!"

It left all who heard their cries in confusion and fear, fueling the fighting even more. It was in that case, that the USCA furthered its Armed Intervention Policy to its greatest height... the ABS Project, and the KIRA Project.

Originally, it was meant to be two separate projects. But with the odd occurrence of one surviving test subject of both experiments, Dr. Jacob Archibald and Dr. Rousseau Borvinski were allowed to continue their research.

Hundreds more were created in the First's likeness. However, due to oddities in the order of experimentation, it was deemed that unlike the First, who was named KIRA, the surgeries of AMVS injection would be done _after_ the Q-Gen hardware input. This ensured a safe subject and a sure success. Although, it was a trade-off for the capabilities that the First had obtained: super-speed, super-strength, super-instinct, super... everything. Whereas the rest were three times more than the average human soldier, but still half the man the First could ever be.

Following the First's insight and ability, the ABS Units pledged their allegiance and trained.

What did they train?

Dr. Archibald and Dr. Borvinski gathered the greatest minds in all of the USCA and had each and every bio-engineered soldier seek out their spiritual energy potentials.

Although they were not as proficient as the "Spirit Beings", they had obtained more simpler skills like, "EP Binding, EP Kinesis, EP Compression, and the like."

EP, Energy Particles, were the sources of energy derived from a backpack-like device equipped to every soldier's back. The device, the EP Drive, basically stored the user's Spiritual Energy and converted it into usable energy, like electricity. In this case, electricity formed from highly compressed EP.

EP were rather special. In any case, since they were not normal electrons, they contained a bluish hue, and were ten times more effective in producing energy than any other known source... and it was safe to touch. Although, if compressed to high densities and heated, it could become as dangerous as non-contained plasma energy... which burned like hellfire.

It was the most efficient and space-saving form of energy. The mass of an Energy Particle so small, billions would fit into an atom. But when heated, they would grow in size, thus making it all the more powerful to use as a weapon when compressed.

Which is why, technicians under Dr. Borvinski's unit, served to create an exoskeleton worthy of serving the use of protecting the user and allowing EP to be used in actual combat, whether it be in land, water, or space. Of course, the only limit would be oxygen.

The armor plating would surround every possible body part to ensure that protection was given where it was due. It was layered in such a way that the chest area and upper back were covered by two pieces of G-Carbon, gravity-force carbon, and then more rings of metal around the solar-plex, then the lowest layer being the abdomen. Then it would overlap from there and work upwards toward the wast and hips. This would allow the soldier to bend and lean without exposing any parts underneath. The groin and rear were covered by more metal, and then the layers would stop there. The armor plating would then continue from the upper thigh, down to the knee. At the knee, special molded G-Carbon would encircle the limb, then continue down to form a metallic shinguard. At the ankles, rubberized G-Carbon was casted, connecting the shinguard and the feet... and even those were layered.

The next best part that made the armor astonishing was the way the arms were protected. The right shoulder was covered in a circular piece of rubberized G-carbon for maximum rotation, then two pieces of metal to cover the bicep and triceps. Then the forearm encircled in the same manner. However, the left arm abandoned the circular shoulder piece for a samurai-style of layering. It was wide and could take stronger hits if other defenses failed. At the forearm, above the standard metal armor, a larger part of rectangular G-Carbon was bolted, the width being that of the soldiers forelegs, to protect the face or any other body part.

Even without armor plating, the rubber-fiber material underneath was layered in such a way that it was nearly indestructible on impact. The first layer, which covered the skin, was of a nylon, bulletproof-vest like material, but more versatile in movement. The second layer was actually of liquid origin. Special chemical compounds mixed together would harden instantaneously when forced hard enough in a short time, making bullets stop in their tracks. The second layer was of rubber-carbon, protecting the soldier from extreme temperatures and climates.

Even with all of that, there was still the EP shielding. The shield that would last at least thirty seconds on any given hit it took... whether it be scorching flames, missile explosions, anti-tank rounds, it would take the hit. As long as the user had enough EP stored and didn't die from receiving the physical-momentum end of the blow. For example, one could drop a two-ton truck into EP shielding, and it would take the damage... but the soldier had to survive the pressure of it. In other words, survive from being flattened to a pancake. Other than that, it was the best form of armor available for any given battlefield.

The most interesting part about the suit was the helmet. It covered the entire head, the molding of a standard USCA helmet, but of thicker content and covering the entire mouth and nose. Then rubberized G-Carbon covered the area over the eyes, and two blue, illuminated pieces of Anti-Caliber fiber glass were sealed in for vision. Then on top of that, the helmet sported a bionic visor, which added to the existing HUD system, that could lift up and lower down over the face of the helmet for added protection. From the neck, it was layered lowest, raising a layer in metal until it reached the shoulders. The plating was arranged in a similar manner of armor, abdomen down, so that the soldier could look in virtually any direction in front of them freely.

This combination of armor, layering of armor plates, layering of materials, and EP shielding, gave the ABS units a supreme advantage on the battlefield. Despite the suit weighing in over two-hundred pounds, the soldiers could still run up to thirty miles per hour wearing them, even with the additional fifteen pound EP Drive mounted onto the back of their suits. They would be able to take bullets and never stop running toward their enemies, and never stop until the conflict was over.

The metal was white. The fiber matte black. The USCA insignia of a bird imprinted over the soldier's heart, holding golden arrows in one of its talons and a green wreath in the other, along with the cold machine-like eyes of the helmet glowed bright blue.

They were cold. They were ruthless. They were fearless.

They were the embodiment of the power of the USCA... the Advanced Bio-engineered Soldier.

And today, KIRA was their commander.

"Alright, ABS Units, this is your leader, the First. Today, we are being deployed for the first time... in the experimental Blast-Pods that will eject down to Earth from the USCA Colony-32, USS Abraham. It is roughly... two-hundred twenty miles from the surface... our destination... EFA and RAL border lines... the Afghanistan... or what's left of it."

He heard a bunch of heavy breathing over his radio.

"Relax..." He himself tried to calm down. "Today we make history. The first, completely successful armed intervention... by the ABS unit."

"Sir?" a younger male voice called in over the COM.

"ABS-176... a rookie. What is it? We're launching in thirty seconds."

"W-what if we don't make it?"

It was dead silent. Fear gripped them.

"Don't doubt what our makers have given unto us... Doubt the suit, the weapons, the pod, everything, if you will... but don't forget that we were given stronger bodies than anyone or anything has _ever_ seen. We _will_ live."

The tension was somewhat relieved.

"Launching in ten... nine... eight..." The automated female voice counted down.

The units gripped their seat belts tight and stared hopefully at the pod's internal monitor.

"...five... four... three... two... one. Launching."

With that, one-hundred and fifty-nine pods launched from the USS Abraham. From there, they entered the earth's atmosphere and plummeted toward the earth.

* * *

"MISSION PLAN"

The blue lettering appeared on their HUD. It was sort of shaky to look at, as the vibrations on the inside of the Pod were intense and sporadic, making it hard to focus on just one thing. It was a good thing the suit had an on-board database to store mission data. KIRA figured he'd have to look at it later.

"0730: ATMOSPHERIC ENTRANCE" (07:30 a.m.)

0815: TEAMS ASSEMBLE" (08:15)

0830: MISSION START" (08:30)

0900: ASSAULT ON SAL / EFA FORCES ON BATTLE FOR KABUL, AFGHANISTAN"

He selected the confirmed the order.

Their first mission was to be a success... at all costs.

-

"Alright, teams assemble," KIRA spoke into the COM. He ran a systems check on all bio-signatures and suits. Everything was fine, as expected. "Within fifteen minutes, we begin the mission."

He checked his EP Gauntlet. Shaking it and making sure it was okay, he aimed and used his middle finger to engage the laser-guided aiming device. Two blue lasers emitted from the top and bottom of the weapon. A circular metal of the gun wrapped around his fore-arm armor, and then two long pieces of metal connected that, above and below, to the main "gun" part of the device. This ensured that the Gauntlet, as a gun, would stay aligned with his arm, and would stay in place. The actual "gun" section of weapon was vertically rectangular in shape. From there, on the front side when aimed, one could look into the rectangular barrel and see laser chargers inside.

The EP Gauntlet was a versatile weapon that served two purposes: Shoot or Cut. The other function, other than a laser pistol, was a beam sword. It was rather large, more like a laser claymore than anything. It was nearly a half of his height, being a little more than three feet in length. But it was light and easy to wield; all the user had to do was swing and whoosh! Whatever they were slashing at would be hacked to pieces without resistance. The blue-eyed soldier chuckled as a cartoonish image popped up in his mind. That would be a sight to see.

The Gauntlet, EPG for short, was a conductor for direct usage of heated EP. To fire, one just simply pulled the second trigger to aim, and the first trigger to fire a long laser-beam energy projectile. To use the sword, they would pull only the first trigger. It was a nasty little weapon, capable of causing more damage than what met the eye.

However, the EPG was not the only weapon available to the average Advanced Bio-engineered Soldier. Each unit was capable of using a plethora of "Spirit Attacks" in case their weapon was damaged or malfunctioning. And even if that failed, having no more EP to spare, they could operate in hand to hand combat while their EP Drive charged... which was rather quick.

KIRA had faith in his battalion, even if he did only know them for about six or so months from training. They were hand-selected by the USCA to fulfill what others could or would not. A shot at unifying the Earth.

And this battle was the first of them.

He readied as ten minutes remained, doing a second quick diagnostics check on all of his armor parts and hardware.

"Um... sir?" A female voice called out to him.

"Hmm?" He turned, looking down at one of his subordinates. Her number appeared on screen. ABS-159. Not an amateur but not one of the veterans either. "Looking for something, 159?"

"Uh- shoot I didn't salute - excuse me, First... sir!" she saluted.

KIRA sweat-dropped. He scratched his previous mental thought and replaced it: Another rookie.

"A-at ease..." He shook his head. They were supposed to be elite, disciplined soldiers, not wandering, idiot novices.

"I-I know we're going to start soon, but can you go through with the basics again?"

"... Didn't the officers back on the Abraham teach you anything?" Although she could not see, he raised an eyebrow.

"My squad and I did get training but..."

"...but?"

"Our squad didn't receive the enough training. Our commanding trainer back on the colony shirked his hours often and-"

"Why didn't you report this?" He was beginning to get annoyed. He didn't know whether to be angry at her or the moron who ditched her squad. Now the mission could end up with snags... or worse - casualties. That wasn't allowed.

She remained silent.

"Damn. I don't have time-"

"Sir, forgive me for speaking out, but if you review really quick, I'll head over to my squad and explain to them how to do it. I'll even record."

KIRA sighed. He didn't have choice. It was either this or let his own men be endangered.

"Okay, get into battle position."

ABS-159 raised her weapon and bent her knees a little. KIRA gaped.

"Okay... now hold on a moment - first off, you're standing a little too straight, bend your knees more!" She obeyed. "Now raise your weapon higher! Keep your left hand on the bottom bar of the EPG, and lean forward... lean!" She leaned. "Aim!"

"Aiming!" She pulled the secondary trigger to initiate firing mode.

"Now that's set - I just taught you the standard firing position," he checked for her vitals. "Now I just have to teach you the proper sword stance... and form."

"Um... I know the stance... just..."

"No form?" the ABS leader sighed. Whatever incompetent shit-face of an officer had attempted to train these soldiers was going to be court marshaled. KIRA swore he would make sure it happened.

"Yes." She looked down at the ground, worried.

"You know what?"

"Yes, sir?" 159 looked up at her superior.

"Get your squad, you guys are joining me."

* * *

"Look at him go!" ABS-156 shouted. The younger teen was

"Damn.... wish I could be like that. Show-off." Another female soldier, 157, crossed her arms as she "pouted".

"Guys..." 159 tried to get her teammates to cooperate. "We're in the middle of a battle..."

"Such carelessness..." 158 agreed with her and readied his weapon.

KIRA was counting his kills. Currently he was at two-hundred and fifty-four. The rest of his pitiful squad? Five. Together.

Well, at the rate that he was doing, he'd get promoted... again. As of now, he was a lieutenant, but... with the status of his soldiers maybe not. But it was fine with him, as long as the newbies learned something.

* * *

"This is Squad One reporting to all squadrons, we have taken over the prime minister's quarters."

KIRA and his soldiers stood in the room, hoisting their weapons and aimed at the officials. They were in control now.

"This is Squad Two coming in, we have taken over the -" "This is Squad Three, we've reached -" "This is Squad Six, we are currently en route-"

The mission was a success. Easy.

It was over too quickly. Almost too quickly.

* * *

The platoon of ABS units sat, strapped into the seats of a transporter jet.

KIRA closed his eyes, and tried to calm himself. It wasn't everyday that you went out and killed people. It was his first time witnessing death, but he knew he had killed before so he was calmer than normal people.

There was proof in his medical files.

* * *

_"JUNE 10TH, 2319_

_KUROSAKI SHIN_

_MEDICAL FILE DESCRIPTION:"_

_From there on, it was an audio recording._

_"Injection of the AMVS Serum was successful," the voice sighed, "but it had caused the casualties of four of my colleagues, and one USCA scientist professional doctor. After the formula was injected into the frontal lobe of the brain... after that, shit hit the fan. The patient- I mean subject - went insane."_

_The man's voice became shaky and full of fear._

_"He- it... tore apart the nurses that tried to restrain him. He freakin' tore off their limbs! Then he..." Heavy breathing followed. "He ripped open my partner's jugular with his... oh god... his... h-his mouth."_

_Crying was evident._

_"I could see the fangs... the poison leaking out... the man's face went dark blue, strained as his eyes stared into mine, knowing that he was dying. Then that was it. I ran for the locker and hid. That's when the other female nurse tried to run for it, but she couldn't get out fast enough and was cornered. Oh god, it was brutal. He stabbed her with his hand... and then dragged her back in... I could hear her scream and I-I couldn't bear to watch. All I heard was tearing of limbs and growling and munching..."_

_There was a long silence._

_"After that... the military came. They tried to help me, those poor bastards, but they didn't stand a chance. Half of those that came in got killed in a flash. I had no idea what to do, but... I remembered that I had mistakenly left a tranquilizer dart in pocket in case something during the surgery happened. Good thing for my paranoia that I left it there. Without it I would be dead. Oh god... oh god... He was trying to bite me... bite my neck..."_

_AUDIO END."_

_"Something wrong KIRA?" DR. Archibald had come to check up on him._

_"Doctor..." the super human looked up at his creator. "Am I a monster?"_

_"Hmm..." the man frowned. "It depends on how you look at it, I'm afraid. It all depends."_

_"What do you mean?"_

_"Well, for one, to some, you are something to be feared. Something that needs to be controlled and contained, for you are not like the rest of us," the doctor put his hands behind his back and began to stroll around the room. "They feel that because you are different, you are a threat, and they feel the need to retaliate, even if you don't pose a threat at all."_

_"I-I see." The teeanager's gaze went down._

_"But..." the doctor raised a finger into the air. "For others, you symbolize a ray of hope. A hope that may enable us to reach the dreams that we have desired for to come true: unity in the world. For that, you are the only one capable of fighting and making that happen."_

_"But... is it okay to kill? Is killing okay, Doctor?" KIRA looked into the man's eyes for an answer._

_"To attack the weak and the innocent, certainly not. But for the sake of peace, to strike the enemy who brings conflict on the world, I say that is fine with me. Hmph." The Doctor put his hands on his belt and raised his chin._

_"So, in the name of justice-"_

_"No KIRA, it is not '_in the name of_'. It is purely '_I am' _justice. It is when you act as justice to protect the weak and the innocent, and the ones you love that justice will be truly served. Never _'in the name of'_ - take responsibility of it, don't just use it as a namesake. That has been the downfall of many people in our history."_

_"Yes sir."_

_Although his hands had been stained with innocent blood, he was inspired, and swore to uphold and ensure the peace as a servant of Justice._

_"You understand don't you?" The doctor smiled._

_"I do, sir."_

_"Good boy. Then after the mission, I'll give you the password."_

_KIRA smiled._

* * *

"ABS-131, Incoming Message," a female automated voice sounded within his ears.

"Received, Open," he activated by voice command. On his HUD, the data file opened.

Another mission file rolled out on the screen in view, stating that his next mission would begin in... three hours!?

He read the file over again.

Due to a phenomena disturbance, he was to secure the area of...

KIRA looked it over again.

His - no. It was where he belonged _before_ he became an ABS unit.

Tokyo-to, the prefecture and hometown of Kurosaki Shin.

* * *

A/N - I hope that most of you didn't become confused by the time skip. It requires much **inference** until I give out more story data in future chapters (flashbacks and such). Anyway, the armor and such was hard to describe. I doodled in class once and came out with a fully armored cyber soldier dude and it looked like the perfect suit for an ABS unit (yeah admire my drawing skillz), so I decided to use that.

And I chose to exclude the battle sequences of Kabul because I wanted to show how fast an ABS squadron would capture an entire city compared to that of a fully equipped and armored battalion of several companies and whatnot... and partially because I'm a lazy bum.

But now, we move on to another crucial part in the story. Tokyo-to and the Phenomena of the Spirit Beings.

What will happen there? Will KIRA discover his past? Who will he meet? What will he encounter?

If you have any questions about this chapter or anything of this version of the Bleach universe, post it in a review! I'll try my best to answer.

Now, farewell, I must study for midterms (darn high school).


	8. Chapter 007: Encounter

Sorry for taking so long. This is a very busy time for me, as I have incoming projects and reports due. I am just trying to get in the this chapter in so you guys don't think I've abandoned you or something.

Well, this is a climactic - I hope - chapter and that it will portray the futility of humanity's utmost efforts to stop the Spirit War.

As for those who just read that, you're probably thinking, "OMG, wat. spirit warz! WAT IS DIS!?"

lol, I'm having fun.

* * *

"We've reached the drop-site." The pilot of the AeroDynamic Vehicle, the Hummingbird, looked back at him and gave a thumbs up, giving the signal that he was ready to drop him. KIRA confirmed the order and stood up near the edge of the rear end while holding on to a handlebar that stuck out for support.

"ABS-131, ready to go."

"Acknowledged, deploy!"

Shin jumped down to about ten feet.

Landing with a large thump, his feet cracked the concrete on impact. He stood from his kneeling position, and observed his surroundings. It was a rather calm, quite, suburban district of Tokyo-to. In fact, almost too peaceful. Kids were running in the street, only stopping to stare at him. Mothers were hanging laundry, grandfathers reading the newspaper, students walking home from summer cram-schools.

It was a beautiful day. KIRA felt as if he didn't belong in his stature and flashy armor.

"Switching on EP Vision," he spoke as the helmet recorded his every action. His HUD adjusted as normal objects remained their original appearance, but as for anything with some sort of spiritual power would be detected. His vision fluctuated slightly, but was adjusted by the calibrators in his eyes. He slowly turned his head left and right for any signs of energy.

"HB-343, leaving combat zone - heading back to HQ..." The ADV began to turn, then shook. "- the hell?" The pilot struggled to regain the controls.

KIRA snapped his head back at the Hummingbird. His eyes widened in shock as a colossal, green tentacle cracked like a whip against the vehicle.

"Shit! Shit! This..." static ensued. "Hummingbird... V-34... Going down!"

ABS-131 watched in horror as the ADV began to spin in mid-flight.

"May... Mayday!... Mayda..."

"HB-343! Come in!" KIRA shouted into the COM. "Hummingbird! Come in! This is ABS-131! Damn!"

He began to run toward the estimated crash site. It wasn't that the bird fell out of the sky yet, although it was smoking and spinning toward the ground. KIRA was simply going toward where he guessed the ADV would fall. Then a few seconds later, it did indeed fall.

The soldier, along with five-hundred pounds of armor, ran at a maximum speed of 50kph toward the crash site. His visual HUD was flashing all over the place as he tried to read the vitals, access HQ, call Dr. Archibald, and other USCA officials of the incident... and the freak monster that assaulted the Hummingbird.

"ABS-156, 7, 8, and 9! Come in! This is ABS-131!" He quickly rerouted the COM channel and sent a recording to ABS Headquarters. "This is ABS-131, currently en route to HB-343's crash site. Spiritual Entity in the area of a large... twenty-five spirit kiloton mass. Requesting reinforcements. There are ABS units at the crash site."

He ran as fast as his cyborg body could carry him.

"This is USS Abraham, ABS HQ 02. ABS-131, message received, over."

"ABS-131, requesting backup! Whatever we're going to be fighting, it's huge and deadly." KIRA huffed as he ran faster than the scooters on the street.

"This is HQ, request denied."

"What- Fuck!" KIRA hopped over a gaping hole in the ground about five feet in diameter. "What the hell?" He stopped running to observe the environmental hazard. He looked into it, discovering that there were spirit particles left behind. "ABS-131 to HQ. Repeat?"

"HQ to ABS-131, request denied."

"Damn." KIRA cut the channel and looked around him. Men and women, students of all ages, and even animals froze to stare at him. They too, had wonder where the hole came from and why it had magically appeared. "_**Oh come on.**_" He stared at them. They stared right back.

_You've got to be kidding me. Civilians._

"_**Uh... I'm a soldier...**_" Shin tried to clear his throat as his voice came from the speakers in his helmet. "_**I am... a USCA soldier from... uh... the USCA military space forces... dispatched to... investigate... this... hole?**_"

He tried to restrain the awkward level of the situation and looked at the hole, then the ADV crash in the distance about fifty meters away.

"Fuck..." he whispered. "_**Just clear the area!**_" KIRA began to shout. "_**Clear the area now! Go home!**_" The civilians just simply stared at him in confusion.

Then he realized that he was speaking English... in Japan. Of course they wouldn't understand a word he was saying! He brought a palm to his helmeted face. Using his HUD's menu, he selected Languages, then selected Asia, then Japan, then Standard.

He was now speaking in Japanese.

_"__**I am a USCA soldier, ABS-131, here to investigate this unnatural phenomena. It is unsafe to prolong your stay here. I advise you that you go home and stay indoors for the time being. Please cooperate or I will have to subdue you.**_" He raised his gun for added effect. The people began to immediately follow his order and rushed home.

Some little children however, stood there, not understanding what he just said.

"Come on kids, go home," he spoke through his helmet, lowering the volume as to not frighten them.

"You're cool!" one kid pointed and raised his voice. KIRA cocked his head to one side in confusion.

"Yeah!" another child agreed. "You look Raider-sama from the anime!... but fatter- no wait..." the boy scratched his head. "More rrrgghh!" He tried to flex some imaginary muscles.

KIRA chuckled. Kids.

"Alright now," he motioned them. "time to go home now..."

"Hey you!"

The soldier snapped around to face a boy, about two or three years younger than he.

"What are you doing with those kids!" the boy raised and pointed a finger at him.

Jeez, what was with kids and pointing? KIRA tried to reason with the high school student.

"I am a USCA soldier, deployed by the USCA Space Paramilitary forces to investigate this..." he gestured his hands to the hole behind him, "... and check up on my comrades." He pointed to the fallen ADV in the distance.

"What?" The boy stared at him.

"Something wrong?" KIRA looked at him through his visor.

"I haven't seen USCA forces ever wear armor like that..."

"I'm a part of the Paramilitary Division and the ABS unit... in other words I'm elite. Now step aside."

"No."

"What?" KIRA was about to blow up at the kid. He raised his gun.

"Just kidding! Hahah." The boy immediately moved and let the soldier walk past him.

KIRA began to run, not paying heed to the students foolishness.

* * *

As he neared the crash site, he saw people try to drag out his fellow ABS units from the crash. As his HUD tagged the people, they were identified as more students.

He saw ABS-157 and 159, both females, tried to help their male partners out of the wreckage. However, they had difficulty doing so as the pieces of heavy metal and carbon were squishing them. Time was crucial in rescuing them. KIRA boosted his efforts in reaching them.

"First-sama!" he heard 159 speak Japanese. He assumed that they too had switched languages to speak with the students.

"Protocol dictates that civilians are to clear the area. What the hell are you doing?" He stared at the students.

"S-sorry, but-" She struggled to lift the torn pieces of ADV.

"I'll overlook it this time." He stepped in to help. Grasping a part of the metal, he lifted the crashed vehicle with ease. With that, the two female ABS units dragged out their male counterparts, helping them up.

"We're good, sir," 158 claimed, rotating his limbs to check if anything was broken.

"Same here." 156 jumped up and down to check for tears in his muscles.

KIRA looked at the broken Hummingbird.

"Did the pilots survive?"

"Unfortunately," ABS-156 declared, "...no. They went as soon as we hit the ground."

"Damn. I requested backup and they denied."

"Sir?" 159 looked at him, waiting for an order.

"Right now," KIRA sighed, "It's too dangerous. Whatever the hell that was that knocked you guys out of the sky is huge. It's gigantic. Colossal."

He was about to check for the dog tags of the fallen, but heard a familiar voice in the far distance from where he had come from.

"Kin nee-chan! Sakura nee-chan!"

"Yo!" One of the older boys standing at the crash site called out and waved to the younger boy he had seen earlier.

"Kazu-nii! Masao-san! Harumi-san!"

They boy ran up to them and panted as he held his knees for support.

"Oi, Hiroaki, watcha doin' here, kid?" the Kazu fellow spoke to the kid, now 'Hiroaki'.

He turned to view them all in together. There was a blonde girl, a pink-haired girl, a brunette, a brown-haired boy, and a purple-haired boy... then there was the annoying black-haired kid.

"All of you," KIRA barked, "State your names and affiliations."

"Wha-?" The 'Kazu' boy raised an eyebrow. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"_**I said, names and affiliations. Family names, first names. Then I want schools, grades, and class ranks.**_"

"What gives you the right to ask?"

"I am an Advanced Bio-engineered Soldier, unit 131, Leader of the ABS platoon. My rank is a first class lieutenant with special authorization of USCA Command and Headquarters. _**I have every right to ask.**_"

"Damn," the brown-haired student scratched his chin. "Um... Motoyama Kazuhiko. Student of Tokyo-to School of Excellence, Senior High, Senior. Um... do I really have to give my-"

"_**Yes.**_"

"Eighty-fourth out of two-hundred forty."

"Next," KIRA turned to the next person, Masao.

"Furutsuchi Masao, same school and grade. Ranked third."

"Next."

"Sakurabana Harumi... um... same place and class... ranked fifth..."

"_**Next.**_" The First was getting impatient.

"Yoshihara Kin! Same school and grade! Ranked sixty-fourth! … Sir!" She raised a hand to salute.

"_**Are you mocking me?**_" KIRA stared at her with his cold, metallic, LED "eyes".

"Uh... no... sir." She bowed her head. He turned to the next girl.

He froze upon looking at her. Something... something was familiar. He couldn't place where he had seen her from though. Every muscle and nerve in his body seemed to jump at observing her complexion, her skin and her beauty.

However, her face was a mess. Eyes were puffy and red, a frown was evident, and what normally would have been covered in make up and properly ordered for a fashionable teenager, her face lacked color and her hair was out of place. Depression seemed to have taken control.

"Next..." He lowered his voice, as to not scare her.

She simply stared at the ground, her hands clasping some sort of necklace dangling near her chest.

"_**I said next.**_" Even if she was pretty or a civilian, he was not going to tolerate disobedience to authority. "_**I said-**_"

"Leave her alone, you big bully!"

KIRA turned his head toward the shrimp. He took note that she lifted her head at her defense.

"_**And?**_" He spoke toward 'Hiraoki'. "_**You are?**_"

Despite the boy's rudeness and lack of respect, he straightened his back and lowered his arms in standard student-like position.

"Kurosaki Hiraoki, same school. Grade ten- gah!"

The boy didn't even finish before a hand clamped around his neck.

"Lieutenant!" ABS-156 cried, "Sir! What are you doing!?"

ABS-157 and 159 were about to rush in to stop their commander from committing a serious offense, but were stopped by the order of his hand.

"_**Repeat that.**_"

"K-Kuro..." the boy gasped as the grip around his neck grew tighter. "...saki!... Hah! H-Hira... oki!... Hu... ah!"

"_**That's not possible!**_" KIRA stared through his helmet and visor. "_**There's no way...**_"

"You!"

The commander looked at Kazuhiko who had lifted a block of wood to smack him. The boy was stopped by his fellow classmate, Masao.

"Don't be stupid, Kazu!" The boy struggled to keep his friend from attacking. "You'd be assaulting a USCA soldier! It's a serious offense! Think!"

KIRA, knowing that the situation was under control, turned his attention back to the boy who was choking before him.

"_**State how you are related to the Kurasaki family.**_"

"I... am..." the boy tried to pry the soldier's fingers, but failed. "... their... son!"

"_**You LIE!**_" KIRA was outraged now. How could he, who was the Kurosaki family's only son and heir, be suddenly replaced by this fool? He pressed the first trigger on his EP Gauntlet, activated the bright, white-hot, searing energy blade. He brought it to the boy's neck.

"No..." a small voice came from his left. "No! Stop!" The familiar voice immediately sent a jolt through his body and forced him to let go.

"Gah! Kah!" Hiraoki lay on the ground, coughing and heavily gasping for air. ABS-131 stared in wonder how he had come to stop. He faced the pink-haired girl.

"He..." a tear rolled down her face. "... was adopted..."

KIRA stilled at that claim. It sort of made sense. But why? Why would the Kurosaki's, after losing their son, adopt?

"He..." the pink haired girl continued. "He was... the Kurosaki's had a son... that p-passed... away..."

At this, more tears fell down her cheeks. He was somehow moved by her tears, but showed no reaction.

"That son... we... he... he was my lover."

KIRA immediately stopped at that. His thoughts raced at the three times the speed of light, accessing and closing data bins within his brain four times over and then repeating the process.

"H-how?" He whispered. "W-what proof..."

She raised the locket around her neck towards him, carefully placed in her hands, opened, revealing a picture of her and... his former self.

"I gave him my grandmother's ring."

His entire being shook with instability and uncertainty. A memory flashed within his mind, freezing his movements.

* * *

_PERSONAL LOG (MARCH 3RD, 2320)_

_KIRA VIDEO LOG_

_OPTION: PLAY (15:30)_

_"You've done a great job," Dr. Rousseau congratulated him. "You survived."_

_"I-it... was nothing."_

_"Nothing!" the man laughed. "You just went through 130 G-force and lived! Normally one would be crippled without protection! And here you are, alive and kicking."_

_"If you say so, sir."_

_"Bah! No need to call me that. I told you, many times now, call me uncle."_

_"It feels weird calling you uncle."_

_"Well, if I give you a present, will you call me uncle?"_

_"A present?" the bio-engineered teenager looked at the man with curiosity._

_"Oh yes... something from your past life..." a sparkle was evident in the man's eye. "It was very precious to you I assume. It was from someone important."_

_"It... it was?" Now KIRA desperately wanted to know. If it was something that would help him remember and unlock his memories, then yes, he would definitely take the opportunity. "I'll call you uncle."_

_"Haha! I knew you would." The man clapped his hands together. "Now... yes, this is Dr. Rousseau... calling in Locker 512... yes, password: Open Sesame..."_

_KIRA stared at the doctor for his corny password._

_"What?" the scientist stared at him, raising his hands in defense. "No one would have guessed!"_

_"Hn..." the ABS leader turned his head and remained seated in his chair._

_A few moments later, a box was delivered by the colony personnel and was given to the doctor._

_"Now, here. I don't know what effects it may bring when you see it, but I hope you'll like it."_

_The silver-haired teen carefully lifted the lid and peered inside the box, lifting out a necklace with a ring. Oddly enough, the ring itself struck a note within his heart, and somehow caused his hands to shake._

_KIRA closed his eyes and put the necklace down. He couldn't take the feeling too easily. Something within the very core of his being cried out to him, screaming that it was essential to his existence._

_He would treasure it, even if he didn't know who it was from._

* * *

The ABS lieutenant brought his hand to his neck, where the ring lay underneath his armor. Realizing what he was doing, he quickly brought his hand down.

"I-I..." his voice was a bit shaky. He didn't know where to begin. Then he felt a slight tremor in the earth and looked down. "Shit."

His HUD revealed a large spiritual mass beneath them. He jumped forward and took the girl down to the ground as a swift, gigantic tentacle popped out of the concrete road, thrashing wildly around in the air.

His squad aimed their weapons and aimed as the students screamed in confusion. Of course, they could not see what was making an attack upon them, so it was up to KIRA and his squad to protect them.

"Weapons hot!" He shouted, allowing the four other soldiers to fire at will. He gave his attention to the girl below him. Carefully moving as to not crush her with his weight, he shifted and began to stand up.

A hand grabbed a part of his armor around the neck and pulled him back. He could have easily left if he wanted, but was stayed by the gentle hand that kept him from entering battle.

The girl's blue gazed into his metal eye coverings. Blue and blue, human and metal. From within his helmet, his eyes stared with the same intensity.

"What..." He tried to pull away, but her strength increased, trying to keep him in place. Of course it was futile, but oddly enough, KIRA stayed

"Y-you said you were bio-engineered..."

"I did." He really needed to get to his squad. He could here the laser firing behind him and crashing concrete as the tentacle smacked at them.

"I... I need to know."

"Need to know what?" He wanted to escape, but somehow, KIRA was frozen there, unable to run.

"Who... who are you?"

He could not... would not answer that. It wasn't meant to be.

"I can't answer tha-"

"You have to!" Her eyes grew wide, the reflection of his masked face within them. "If you are who I think you are-"

"I can't tell you!" He was getting nervous. This couldn't happen, he would not allow it to.

"You must! Something within me says you are!" Her hands found a way to his "face", and held his head close to hers. "I can feel... you... Shin..."

A hot tear fell from his eye, blurring his vision and fogged up his helmet.

Although he could barely see it, she too was crying at the revelation.

He had to go.

She wanted him to stay.

He had to fulfill his duty.

She wanted him to be with her.

He was bound by protocol.

Both stared at each other for what seemed for hours.

Then the tentacle wrapped itself around KIRA's torso and pulled him away.

* * *

A/N: Geez. I hate school. And the super bowl (I will not state which team I am in favor of as that may bring unnecessary flaming). They both take up my time.

Well, this chapter was exceptionally difficult. I feel this is genius, but criticize me if you will. So, there you have it. The reunion of KIRA/Shin and Sakura.

But the question is: What will happen now? Honestly, I won't say. But hardships are in for our hero, and his discovery of his newly adopted sibling and regained love interest. What will happen to his squad? His friends?

What is this freak of nature that is attacking them? How will he deal with it?

All answered next time, on... oh screw it. This sounds like a TV show recap thingy. Just wait till the next chapter of Gekirin: Shinigami no Seito.


	9. Chapter 008: Reconciliation

Okay... "WAT WAT ANOTHER CHAPTER SO QUICKLY! MARATHON! WAT"

Yeah, so here you go. I was sick and didn't go to school so I had time to work on this (thank me foolz).

In this chapter there is a funny surprise that is not intended for the faint of heart. I would not advise you to go look it up unless... unless you like those kind of things you sick pervs!

Next chapter. Here. Now. Enjoy. Review.

BTW - go look up the birthstone zircon: it should help you understand this chapter a little better. (http://+www.+shaysjewelers+ com+/images/gem_+zircon.+jpg) I put "+" signs to spread the link out so the text editor wouldn't delete it. Remember to get rid of those when putting the link in.

* * *

"_**Argh!**_" KIRA was being pulled into a hole by the tentacle of an unknown monster. Currently, he was facing upwards, toward the sky, and using all four limbs to grasp the edges of the opening within the ground. Hopefully, the damned thing would let go, but it didn't look like that was going to happen anytime soon.

"Boss!" ABS-156 tried to grab him, but another, smaller tentacle had popped out and thrashed at him.

"_**EP Booster!**_" KIRA initiated the EP Drive's second function, a jet-pack like motion that would send massive amounts of particles through the back, propelling him forward. In this case, out of the hole. However, the smaller tentacle had wrapped itself around him and added to the monstrous strength that already held him down.

He was running out of options. He could use an EP stasis, but that would just freeze the both of them, and he couldn't have that. EP Kinesis wouldn't help in this situation either. It didn't bring _him_ to other objects, just the other way around. That left one of the few maneuvers for defensive capabilities.

"E... _**EP SHOCK!**_" the First screamed. Instantaneously, all the particles that were encased around him zapped with electrifying results. Whipping upwards, the tentacles through him in recoil and a large rumbling howl emanated from within the hole. ABS-131 landed with a thud onto the cold concrete.

"Oh... fuck..." KIRA tried to stand, but was a bit wobbly from the terrifying experience.

"Sir, are you okay?" 159 checked his vitals.

"He's the First for crying out loud. Of course he's okay," 157 snickered.

"Fifty-Seven..." 159 growled.

"Alright, alright!" 157 threw her hands up in defense. "I'm sorry, yeesh."

KIRA was still breathing rather heavily from the event. Checking his Gauntlet, he raised the pistol-like weapon and aimed at the hole. Then he looked around for the students. They were there, scared shitless.

"What the fuck was that!?" Kazuhiko cried.

"W-wha-" 131 was a bit stunned. "Wait... you saw that thing?"

"Of course we did!" Kin shouted. "It was... ugly!" A few tear stains were evident on her face. The other two were curled up close to each other, as if trying to hide from the monster.

"Alright... what the hell is going on..." KIRA aimed his weapon around, then pointed in the pink-haired girl's direction. He froze.

She wasn't there anymore.

In her place, was another hole.

* * *

"This is HQ to ABS-131, calling in to ABS 131... please respond."

The computer display showed static.

"This is USS Abraham, HQ 02, calling to ABS 131, broadcasting on all channels, please respond."

The man on station turned to the doctor behind him.

"Doc, he ain't respondin'. As far as I can see, somethin's blockin' the signal."

"Damn. The mission wasn't supposed to take this long. It was supposed to be a quick elimination..." Dr. Jacob Archibald removed his glasses and pinched his nose. What was he to do?

"Well," Dr. Rousseau Borvinski tried to speculate on the situation. "It may be that the flare in spiritual energy may have blocked out the signal. After all, the use of the Energy Particle Drive does cause some temporary overloads in mechanical devices..."

"But that doesn't explain why they're taking so long!" The man's face began to redden in frustration.

"Jacob, calm down. It's just a snag."

"Rousseau, a snag could mean anything."

"..." Borvinski merely remained silent.

"...You know what..." Dr. Archibald began to walk away. "We have to get the next project running."

"You mean... _that_ one? The one that was...?"

"Yes... _that_ one... make sure you call in the soldiers and brief them on what to expect."

* * *

"Sakura!" Kin cried out for her best friend. "Sakura!"

The others had to restrain her from running into the hole into who-knows-where.

KIRA was troubled.

"O-oh god..." Kazu was breaking down. "Sakura... she's... she's..."

"Calm down kid," 158 tried to assure the kid that everything was going to be alright. But he himself was unsure as well.

"Sakura, man. She's in some... s-some god-forsaken hole... with... w-with some... t-tentacle monster! Oh god... the_ H_ things..."

"_**What?**_" KIRA just stared at Motoyama. "_**Wait... what?**_"

"T-tentacle... rape... monster... Sakura..."

"Oh you've got to be fuckin' kidding me." 156 burst out. "You mean..."

"D-does that happen in real life?" 157 was blushing, but no one knew because of the helmet. "Isn't that anime shit just made up..."

"Wait... I don't get the situation..." 159 and KIRA were both a bit clueless.

"Y-you know... H things..."

"I know the implications of the letter 'H' in Japan. So... what... exactly... tentacles..." KIRA was very confused.

159 broke the news to him. About how they hacked their way to freedom on the Internet... and how they discovered the "_forbidden realm_"... and then the more sick, hardcore content that even they didn't understand.

Of course this troubled KIRA only so much.

"Oh shit, what are we gonna do," 156 was frantically running around trying to think of what to do. "Oh crap, what do we do, what do we do, what do we do..."

"Shut up and let me think!" 158 tried to analyze the situation, then looked around and noticed something odd. "... guys?"

"What?" 159 asked, still shaken from the "mental de-flowering".

"Where's the leader?"

* * *

KIRA was outputting maximum burn on his EP Drive's booster function. Of course, this would cause all the particles stored to burn out at faster rate, but at this point he didn't care. Right now, he needed to fly through this tunnel as fast as possible and get to the source of the tentacles.

Before they did their eerie deeds upon his loved one.

The tunnel was nearly endless.

_What was I thinking? Jumping into the hole..._

Then he saw a flash of light at the end and flew out into the fresh air. Landing, he guessed he was in some sort of forest or woods of some kind. He readied his weapon.

He took a few steps forward, tracking marks on the ground that could only have been left by the monster that took Sakura. Then he took another few steps. Then some more. This was going to take forever. He knew he had to be cautious, but to be this cautious would cost time... and he didn't have time right now.

KIRA began to run, and then he almost missed it, but it was too late.

A green tentacle snaked its way around the trees and grabbed a hold on his leg, forcing him to fall unto his back.

"Agh!" He tried to aim his gun at the vine-like limb, but couldn't do so because he was being dragged at a rapid pace while being smashed into trees and bushes of nature. He let of random shots of EP to signal his location, although... he figured that it was useless. ABS-131 was in the middle of nowhere.

For a good four minutes, the green snake-like extension of the monster pulled him through hellish ride and into a clearing. It didn't stop there, he was with a few other people. By their limp figures, he guessed they were dead. It pulled him high into the air, then smashed him onto the ground, leaving him stunned to react. The tentacle let go and rose to smack him again. He rolled away.

His eyes scanned desperately for Sakura.

He spotted her, and another woman next to her. They were both holding each other in their arms, waiting for the inevitable.

The tentacle whipped unto the two horizontally, separating the blue-eyed girl and the woman. The woman screamed as the tentacle pierced her heart and began to... "drain" her... blood? Life force? KIRA had no clue. Whatever it was doing, he needed to stop it before it got to his own girl.

"_**EP Stasis.**_" He muttered, trying to concentrate while holding his left hand in the air. Whatever he held his hand toward would now be frozen. Of course, he was pointing at the entity itself, the source of it all.

Unfortunately, it didn't work so well...

One tentacle out of fifty was frozen. And now the monster was upset that it's "arm" was stiff.

"E-_**EP Burst!**_" He raised his left hand and fired a blast of energy, along with a successive shot from his EPG.

This only served to enrage the monster, not stun it.

"Oh fuck me..." KIRA gasped out as he saw the monster's "face" look at him and the tentacles all pointed at him.

He took note of the odd mask-like face and made a run for it. He tried to run around the fiend as it jabbed its tentacles into the ground, one by one, each with a force that was strong enough to cause the tentacles to burrow into the dirt. It let out a cry, one that disrupted his COM system and slightly vibrated his HUD.

The ABS unit had managed to avoid them all, but tightened his lips as the tentacles rose into the air again. He couldn't let this continue. He would eventually tire out from running around the clearing like a little doll compared to... the abomination. He braced himself, activating his energy saber. The monster's limbs lunged.

Upon the first hit, the tentacle lodged itself into the ground, as expected. KIRA slashed, and the tentacle split. As expected.

Now he knew that he could hurt the damn thing. He cried a war cry and sprinted toward the monster.

"_**AAAAAARRAAAAH!**_" KIRA leaped and spun to avoid the tentacles that tried to whip him out of the way. One tentacle smashed into his visor, cracking the fiberglass and even cracked the helmet. The facial armor let off sparks, obscuring the soldier's vision. He quickly tore it off in disbelief as he landed on top of the being.

Then he continued to run.

With acrobatic moves, he twisted and turned to pass more tentacles... straight into the face.

Pointing his sword ahead of him, the monster screamed as the white-hot blade lodged itself directly into the mask, splitting it cleanly in half.

The ABS leader was expected some sort of struggle of nerve-reaction as the monster died.

But no, things always went as he never expected them to. The monster simply dispersed into Energy Particles and disappeared, leaving a huge height gap between KIRA and the ground.

"Oh..." He flailed his arms and legs as if trying to flap wings. "_EP Booster!_" Immediately, the EP Drive absorbed the monster's dispersed particles and converted them to its source of energy. KIRA safely floated to the ground.

He sighed. Then tensed as he searched for Sakura.

The bio-engineered teenager was a bit nervous about saying it, but called out anyway.

"S-_Sakura!_"

She lay at a tree, slumped against it as if she had no life left. He ran over to her side and lifted her up, gently.

"U-un... S-Shin?"

He didn't say anything. He merely looked into her eyes.

Sakura's eyes widened at his appearance.

* * *

It wasn't what she expected to see.

The pink-haired girl stared at her supposed lover's face, to see someone entirely different.

It was the same voice, but a different face, and that left her rather confused.

His facial structure was the same, but his appearance was just... different. His skin was a lighter color than the tanned skin of Shin that she remembered. His hair was silver which was also odd and vastly different. The only thing that was the same about his hair was the orange bangs, but that too, along with the silver, was straight. Slightly ruffled, but still straight compared to Shin's wild spikes. However, there was just one thing that caught and kept her attention.

His eyes.

His eyes were something of the likes she had never seen before.

Compared to the deep, dark, royal-blue sapphire of her eyes, his eyes glowed, even sparkled. It was as if she stared into polished, clear blue zircon gems.

However, he didn't even have pupils. She could tell that his eyes were bionic. Mechanical. The dark void of his eyes that she stared into were not pupils, but merely a black, man-made pipe to capture light and function like an eye. It was not real.

But even if it wasn't natural... it was still pretty to look at.

That bewildered her, that such eyes would hold her gaze for that long.

A man that was Shin and somehow not.

He broke the silence first.

"Would it help..." he whispered and closed his eyes. "If I did _this?_" Then he opened them again.

Sakura gasped as she saw something she thought she'd never see again.

Coupled with his orange bangs, he now had the golden-yellow eyes that she longed to peer into again... which made a striking resemblance to Shin. She stopped that thought... well he _was_ Shin after all, but...

She had to have her questions answered.

"What happened... after the hospital..."

* * *

KIRA frowned and clenched his teeth. This was something he didn't want to bring up. It was the first time he had killed... murdered... slaughtered. It wasn't a pleasant memory.

Of course, his memories were locked away, but his body remembered. And just hearing that audio log over and over again... the male teen shut his eyes.

"I don't remember."

"T-they told me..." She leaned in closer to his face. Her breath was hot on his cheek. "That you... were dead..."

He didn't know what to say. But she had to know the truth, now that it was coming into the light.

"In a way, I am." KIRA pulled back... "I am now KIRA, ABS-131, of the USCA Military and a subject of the ABS and KIRA project. I am no longer..." It sort of pained him to say the words. "...no longer human."

She stared at him. Obviously confused. He would have to reveal confidential, classified information. It could get him court marshaled, but he didn't care now.

"I'm a cyborg..."

Sakura looked at him. Then his armor. Then his eyes.

"Wait..." her voice became tense.

"If you think that it means I'm connected to the suit in anyway, no."

She relaxed. "... but I don't have a human brain."

The girl stiffened by that. He solemnly continued.

"My brain's mechanical. My eyes..."

She began to tear up, but did not break their eye contact.

"...but this does not mean my soul is... my body... my being... remembers..."

Sakura began to sob now. The tears that she held back began to flow like a river, falling down her cheeks like a damn, and droplets hit her legs like rocks.

"... I... my mind can't remember. It's kind of like I have amnesia or something, but I can get them back again."

She looked back up at him. He wipe away her tears with his gloved thumb.

"Y-you..." she was so quite that Shin had to strain his sound sensors. "You can?"

"Yes." KIRA honestly didn't know where this was going. He was afraid. Of all the things he could be afraid of, he was afraid that this person, one whom he loved in his heart, would not accept him.

"Sh-... I mean... Kira? Right?" Sakura looked into his eyes once more.

"Y-yeah..." He was unused to having someone other than the doctors back in space call him that... a girl and his lover to boot.

"C-could... could you do me a favor?" She looked down, her hair covering her face so that he could not see.

"Um... s-sure... as long as it doesn't well... make me break protocol rules or something..." He began to sweat. He hoped to the mechanic gurus in space that she would not tell him to get out of her face forever.

"Well... just here." She looked up at him again and then raised her hand. He flinched. She placed a hand over his eyelids and lowered them, closing his eyes. "Stay still..."

_Oh great, here comes the slap._

* * *

Sakura's heart was beating intensely now.

If he was telling the truth, despite his cyborg transformation, he was still the same person. Maybe a little rough around the edges as soldier, but still the Shin she always loved. Just under a different name.

She slowly leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his neck.

* * *

_Now she's going to strangle me..._

KIRA prayed. Hard.

* * *

Sakura couldn't take it. She was mere centimeters from his face. Part of herself refused to accept the situation. The other longed to do what she always wanted to do.

She continued to remain, breathing rather slow and hot on his neck.

* * *

_Um..._

The ABS unit wondered what the heck was going on. Why would she breathe on his neck so... so... intimately?

Unless... KIRA's eyes widened. That was it!

She was trying make him relax so she could bite his neck and kill him that way!

_Oh fuck!_

* * *

Damn it!? Why was he so tense?

Sakura was making her best effort to make him relax so the experience would be more enjoyable.

She would have to press harder to break him...

* * *

KIRA's mind raced.

She was licking. _Licking_ his neck and cheek.

_I'm screwed... like turkey dinner on Thanksgiving night..._

* * *

She was getting hot now.

The heat in her lower body was raging, spreading like wild fire throughout her entire body.

Sakura wanted him... so bad...

* * *

The poor boy was about to explode.

She was nibbling his ear for crying out loud! Did he taste good enough!?

He then relaxed. He might as well accept whatever judgment the gods of death had laid out for him and receive death by the hands of his lover.

* * *

_Finally!_

Sakura lunged for the kill.

...She locked lips with him.

* * *

_Eh?_

Shin opened his eyes in surprise. He felt... an old, familiar warmth on his lips. Concentrating on what was before him he realized.

He realized that he was kissing... or rather, Sakura was kissing him right now. Then he understood what was going on.

… and closed his eyes, then initiated the return.

* * *

Now it was Sakura's turn to open her eyes.

She gasped as she felt a familiar feeling around her pinky finger, grasped by another, indicating that he did indeed remember their promises.

The girl spilled a few tears as his finger curled around hers, ever so gently, letting her know that he loved her, and acknowledged her as his own.

Then she let out a surprised, muffled yelp.

"Hm!"

* * *

KIRA mentally smiled as he took the opportunity of her gasp to slip his tongue into her mouth.

The old memory around his finger made him remember that somehow, the two of them used to do something, but he couldn't quite recall what.

So he had let his instincts fill in for him. And it turned out perfectly.

Now? The two of them were trying to fight for dominance, pushing each other's tongues further in to the other's.

* * *

"Um... sir?"

Kira and Sakura immediately froze, eyes forcing open upon the call that they were not alone. They tore apart from their love-lock and turned to face the voice.

Or rather... the eyes that stared at them in disbelief. KIRA's eyes reverted to blue in schock.

"Uh... we can explain..." ABS-131 felt this was going to be a difficult time.

"Sure you can..." Kin narrowed her eyes.

"I..." he tried to continue, but was cut off.

"Sakura, what were you thinking?" Kazuhiko frowned. She lowered her eyes, not knowing what to do. Indeed it was embarrassing and shameful to be found making out with someone who was supposedly a stranger. Especially when you were known to have severe depression over losing someone you loved and were attached to a while ago. Normally one would be too emotionally scarred to find another lover. Here she was elated that she had someone to love again.

Sakura buried her face into Kira's chest.

"Stop!" KIRA... or Kira at this point, would not allow his girlfriend to be blamed.

"Why should we?" 158, his fellow squad mate joined in.

"Because, I'm Kurosaki Shin!"

Silence ensued.

Then rioting.

* * *

A/N: I wonder how you like that one.

I'll have to admit, the H thing was unnecessary.

I could have simply just make Shin realize that she was gone and them have him disappear, but I wanted to put something there. Something funny or comical that would motivate the protagonist to move like hell. But then again, she was his love and that's enough to make him run... but then he wouldn't run as fast as if were in danger and she was already in danger... but then he wouldn't run as fast as her in _**that**_ kind of danger... Oh whatever. What's done is done.

I wanted to see how people would react to such a statement. Was it funny? Yes? No? Honestly, I won't ever know until people post reviews to tell me about it. It's my first time writing something like... that. It would be a test of my skill as an amateur/novice writer in the fan-fiction business.

"Was I able to pull it off!?" (Dramatic music here)

I don't know... I just wanted a flurry of emotions within this chapter. Throw in some turmoil... laughter... romance... suspense... all that kind of... stuff.

As for the blue Zircon, his eyes don't look that fragmented, I was just trying to use it as a metaphor to make a point. It is very pretty though.

And yes, for those of you who like that scene at the end with the "hot and steamy", more will be coming.

But unfortunately for our hero, this is the beginning of the Infection arc of our plot line.

Laterz, and leave reviews!


	10. Chapter 009: Infection

I'm pushin' it. Another chapter for all.

This time around, I got to read some interesting reviews. (Although there was this one that was kinda... -_-;)

Well, yes. There will be hot and steamy. But that's not for later, because for any of you who actually read the Author's Notes at the end would notice that this... is the beginning of the beginning of a new arc.

You thought the the little gore here and there in the _**Recollection Arc**_ was bad?

Wait till you witness the full atrocity of the _**Infection Arc**_. Yes. Just as the name implies, there will be an infection.

But what is the context of this infection? Does it mean that hordes of people get infected? Animals? What gets infected?

For all you know, it could be you! My readers, infected with the addiction to fanfiction that you will forever become my slaves! Mwahahahahahah... *cough cough*.

Um and yeah... the reviewer I was talking about, that's um... uh... some weird fetishes you have there.

* * *

"Because, I'm Kurosaki Shin!"

"..."

Everyone simply stared.

His soldiers stared in confusion. His former friends stood in shock.

"What?" Kazuhiko finally broke the silence.

"I-I..." Kira didn't really know how to explain.

"Y-you're supposed to be dead," Masao uttered. "H-how..."

Kin and Harumi stood, clinging to their two male counterparts. Hiraoki wondered what his "big brother" was doing here, as he didn't know the full story.

They all wondered how it was possible.

"Prove it," Kazu pushed the silver-haired teen to substantiate his claim. "Prove that you're who you say you are."

Kira grit his teeth, and bore his fangs. He was rather annoyed that they simply wouldn't trust him. Why couldn't they trust him like Sakura had? Then again, Sakura and he had a kind of "connection". Even if he couldn't remember it all. So how would he show them?

"If you have lied, then you've just pulled the biggest mistake of your life..." Kazu's eyes narrowed.

The super-soldier was in a bit of a pinch. They were a little jumpy from the sight of his slightly elongated canine teeth, but were still on the offensive, pressuring him to provide something he did not know how to give.

Then a light bulb went off.

"Oh..." He realized that he had proof with him all along. Shin turned to Sakura and smiled, despite the worried look on her face. Then he gave the orders to his men. "Alright, 156 and 159, come over here and help me..."

"Boss?" 156 stood there, staring dumbly at his leader.

"Just help me take off the torso armor."

"Oh!" He and 159 ran over to assist their lieutenant. Carefully, they pressed on the ejection hatches of the armor, making pressurized air blow out of certain parts of the coverings. In that process, the metal plating fell off and revealed a black, nylon-like jumpsuit.

And there it was. His proof.

Around Kira's neck was a silver chain, and hanging from it was a golden ring.

Of course, Kira didn't know what it was, but considering it was from someone important, that important someone being Sakura, he guessed that all his friends would know about it.

So indeed they did! The looks on their face were priceless. He laughed, thankful that his luck paid off. What would have happened if they didn't know?

Turning to Sakura, he found that she was crying, tears of joy or sadness, he couldn't really tell so well. Shin hugged her, feeling her arms wrap tightly around him.

In the silence, he heard sniffles and sobbing as his friends came in to join in the hug, overjoyed that they had found their long lost friend.

But within his mind, Kira wanted to discover the meaning behind the ring, and hoped the Doctor would give his password soon.

* * *

"Subject is strapped down, sedated, and ready."

"Alright..." Dr. Archibald was fully suited up for laboratory surgery. "Proceeding..."

Prior to this experiment, he made sure that the guards in the room had been properly briefed on Kurosaki Shin's incident and were fully armored up for this. They weren't pushovers either. These were top commandos hand-selected by the USCA military for this kind of operation. They observed, trained, and worked alongside the ABS units.

Sweat fell down his brow and hit the inside of his fiberglass visor as he began to drill the syringe into his brain. Of course, the Doctor was trying to recreate the events from Shin's transformation, but on a more... controlled level. If this succeeded, they would have another soldier with the same skill and abilities as the First. This would be the Second. Then the Doctor would proceed to the Third, and Fourth, and etcetera. But only if he succeeded in this.

"Injecting AMVS Formula..." The Adaptive Mutational Virus Serum. This was crucial to the "reanimation". If the brain failed to convert before the rest of the body, then the patient would simply just die. On the other hand, the subject would live, and then all they had to do was remove the organ and replace it with a Quantum Generator.

That was, if they subject didn't break free. And that was happening now.

"Restrain her!"

Immediately, the soldiers broke formation and rushed into hold down the subject.

However, an unexpected thing occurred.

Both doctors, one from the other side of the glass, operating the machines, and the other within the room, watched in horror as a long, whip-like tongue whipped out of the girl's mouth and stabbed a soldier's neck.

* * *

Kira and his friends, including his fellow ABS units sat down on the clearing of grass and were exchanging tales of their experiences. Of course, by this point, they knew that he couldn't remember anything even if he wanted to. He was USCA property.

Being the "rough one", Kazu decided he had to go to the bathroom.

"Um, I'm going to take a piss guys."

"Ew! Don't say that out loud!" Kin avoided the boy like the plague and clung to the young Hiraoki, who was still very confused and trying to "catch up".

Masao simply brought a palm to his face and Harumi blushed, looking away.

"I'm gonna go over there!" Kazu was halfway across the clearing, pointing to the other section of the forest.

* * *

"Sedatives!" "Fire! Fire!"

By now, Dr. Archibald and Dr. Borvinski had realized the folly of their ways. It was time to quarantine the section and run.

Leaving their posts and the other men behind, the scientists locked the security and rushed to the USS Abraham's Docking Bay. By now, the other ABS units would have arrived.

Little did they know the mutated beings began to dent the door from within.

* * *

"Hmmhmmhmmmmmhmhmhmm..." Kazu hummed to himself a merry tune, relieving himself of bodily wastes, wetting the grass beneath him.

"Lalalalaaalalala..." he broke out into full jazzy melody, zipping up his pants and turning around to return.

Then he saw something and froze midstep.

Shin's cracked and damaged helmet. However, it was still functioning. The brown-haired boy walked over, the sounds of radio signals for 'KIRA' to respond.

"Um... guys!?"

* * *

"Security Breach. Quarantine Outbreak." The Abraham's self-operated automated AI, EVA, spoke with a English accent over the ship-wide intercom.

Many looked up the high ceiling in wonder.

"Security Breach. Quarantine Outbreak. Ventilation Sectors A through B have been compromised. Calling in all Military Personnel to Sectors C through D."

"My god..." Borvinski gasped. "They've escaped through the air vents..."

"Security Breach. Quarantine Outbreak. Sectors A through D have been overrun with Non-Registered Bio-Signatures. Activating AAC Security System."

"H-how is this possible..." Dr. Rousseau looked at his partner, who was equally perplexed. How were they spreading so fast? "If they pass the Automated Accelerated Cannons..."

"Security Breach. Quarantine Outbreak. Sectors A through E have been overrun with Non-Registered Bio-Signatures. AAC Security System One damaged. Please notify a Repair Technician."

The two paled.

"Security Breach. Sealing off Laboratory Chamber... Laboratory Chamber Quarantined. Non-Registered Bio-Signatures have infiltrated the Subject Growth Chamber."

"Oh... no... no..." Dr. Archibald suddenly whipped around, staring at the speakers. "This is going to ugly up really fast..."

"Well I can see that..." Rousseau stared with dullness.

"No, fool!" The man began to panic. "That's where we kept the other ABS units! The failed ones!"

"The ones in the... embryonic pods? I thought those were destroyed since KIRA..." The man frowned.

"No! The process... the process was delayed!" The man rushed back and forth, not knowing what to do. "They were scheduled to be destroyed with the creation of the Second, but now..."

The doctors knew that each ABS unit that had failed were to be destroyed. However, to further their project's production, they kept the failed subjects for research. ABS units 001 through 130 were kept constantly sedated and alive within their artificially created embryonic sacs. If the infected ABS units were to infect those...

"May God have mercy on our souls."

"Security Breach. Quarantine Failure. Locking All Ports and Docks. Please enter escape pods now. Blast pods are Stand-By."

"What mercy, Rousseau..." the man spit on the ground. "We were condemned to hell the moment we began this accursed program..."

* * *

"This is an encrypted message from the Abraham..." KIRA tried to fix his helmet COM, but could not access the system. Therefore, he would not be able to play the video through the hologram projector on his right shoulder.

"Um, sir, if you can somehow transfer over the message to my suit..." 158 meekly suggested. Kira nodded, for it was the best solution.

He opened up his visual HUD options, selected the Computer Modification tab, then chose Wireless Link.

With that, he was reconnected to the Helmet. Next, the chose to Link with ABS 158's armor system. Having done the necessary requirements for this to work, he began the transfer, using himself as the "link" between 158 and his helmet.

"Ooookay." 158 confirmed the video download with a nod of his head. "Playing now."

Everyone's attention turned to 158 as a hologram, 2D video projected itself in midair before them.

The video itself was chaos. It was slightly deterred from static, but that was not the pandemonium. It was what was in the video being recorded that was.

"As of now..." Dr. Archibald spoke into the "camera". "... the USS Abraham, HQ 02, is being overrun by... the Failed ABS units."

Kira frowned.

"The Failed are pretty much every creature and monster being we've every created before you..." The Doctor pointed at the camera, supposedly pointing at Shin. "You, 131, were our greatest success. But... the Failures... the ABS units 001 through 130 were mishaps and misfortunes. Hah..." the man sighed deeply.

Just then, the view switched over to another camera recording a hallway. Dozens of unidentifiable creatures swarmed the corridor, knocking down people and slaughtering them with what seemed to be tiger-like teeth and elongated finger-claws.

Then the camera changed again, this time, to a view of the docking bay. The doors were closed off, sealed shut. Men and women of the staff screamed for help as beasts of all sizes came and attacked them.

Then the camera switched back to the Doctor.

"I believe that EVA, this ship's AI, has deemed us... not able to be saved. Right now, your fellow brothers and sisters are fighting to regain control of the Bridge and override her commands, so that survivors may safely escape. Not even the life or blast pods work..." the man sighed again. "Although the doors do seal shut... I'm safe for now. But I need you... Kira, to come back to the USS Abraham."

ABS 131's frown remained.

"You are... our only hope. I don't believe that anyone has survived, other than myself or Rousseau... and maybe a few other ABS soldiers will probably live. But they aren't equipped to fight other ABS... no, the Failed ABS monstrosities.

… You need to come back here and activate the self-destruct sequence for the Colony. I would do it myself, but unfortunately I've locked myself in, of course, a Blast Pod. We cannot let this Quarantine Outbreak to Spread, so this is my last mission to you...

...I'm sorry that it turned out this way, and the USCA bastards probably won't let you in on the suicide mission. But as a motivator, I will give you access to a prototype suit that we've been working on for you and the... well, the Second.

..Along with it, I've left the _password_. All that's left is for you to come and get it...

...Archibald out."

Kira simply stared at the hologram as it blinked itself out of existence. The others looked at him, wondering if he was going to involve himself in this nightmare. Sakura herself was excessively worried. She was arguing with herself, between begging him to stay and be safe or to go and get his memories back.

The leader lowered his head, eyes closed and hands relaxed.

Then he raised his gaze and clenched his fists. He had a meeting with death to attend.

"ABS units, I, the First, have acknowledge and accepted that order. Proceed with Mission as Class One Priority!"

* * *

A/N: Wow. That was short. But then again, all beginnings are short. And you know that I'll make it up to you in the upcoming chapters. So review, post questions, ideas, observations, whatever.

So what do I do now? I will take a break for a few days, considering I'm cramming school work. I have off from work this weekend, so hopefully I can get a chapter in then. If I really push myself, I might even get one in tomorrow.

But as for now, I'm burned out, and need to type an english paper. Dang it.


	11. Chapter 010: Infiltration

Hello.

Get ready.

To Discover.

The Most Intense.

Infection.

Of your life.

And to the reviewer who stated the idea of me posting on both Mediaminer and Adult Fanfiction: I suppose I could, but right now, I have no reason to do so. Yes, I may choose to put "adult content" if I wish to do so, but right now, my story is not heading in that direction.

In fact, the story is about to enter a time of blood, gore, amazing action sequences, and kickass battle scenes.

So why would I have any reason to post it there right now?

And "Oh," for some of you: The term "infection" in Infection arc. is not limited to just the infection of the crew members and the Failed Ones.

* * *

_"Kira..." Sakura had gazed into his eyes with the most amazing intensity. "Be safe..."_

_"I will."_

_They kissed, and he pulled away._

* * *

He sat, strapped into his seat, along with his fellow ABS members and looked forward into the sky.

The shuttle propelled itself with incredible speed as it reached the heavens, leaving behind a trail of white puffy smoke.

Shin leaned back and closed his eyes, recalling the memory of his friends and girlfriend back on the surface.

* * *

_"Be safe man," Kazu looked up at his now taller friend. "... make sure you come back... in one piece."_

_"Make sure to be cautious up there... but supposing you are a genetically enhanced soldier that's the best of the best, I guess there's no reason to worry," Masao chuckled._

_"I hope you will get your memories back," Harumi smiled. Shin nodded. He definitely wasn't going to fail that one. The soldier then turned to his other, half-white friend._

_"... don't get your face eaten by a monster," Kin huffed, obviously trying to hide her distress. "I won't forgive you if you do."_

_He didn't know what to say, so simply nodded and bid farewell._

_"Sayonara."_*

_He turned, missing the shocked and worried looked on their faces._

* * *

ABS 131: PERSONAL LOG

HIBERNATE - BREAK PHASE

SHIFTING PHASES... PLEASE WAIT...

ACTIVATING...

"Action HUD, Activating..." an monotone female voice rang in his ears. "A new Objective has been Added. Mission: Maelstrom."

"Maelstrom?" 156 asked aloud. "Um... is it just me, or does this sound like this mission's gonna ugly up real fast?" He began to sweat under his armor.

"Don't sweat it 56," ABS 158 checked his straps. "Everyone should await orders."

"I have a bad feeling too..." 157, for being the loud one, was unusually quiet and reserved. Her partner, 159, remained silent.

Shin/Kira looked around and checked his mask. It was a bit cracked, but it would hold. He'd have to find another one on the Abraham... assuming he wasn't mauled by a monster before then.

CONNECTING... WIRELESS LINK... ABS PLATOON COM-LINK

"Connecting to ABS Temporary Leader," the voice rang again, "ABS 172. Please Standby. Connected."

"F-First! Sir!" much coughing interrupted the unit's words. "Sir-" He coughed again. "Damn! It's hell in here. Theres only thirty of us left. The other half is gone-"

"What?" Kira could not believe the sounds emanating from the COM. "W-what's going on down there?"

"Kah!" The soldier coughed again. "Kuh! Ugh... more... blood... dammit... We can't access the bridge. The quarantine is keeping us from accessing. EVA is keeping us from hacking it... We're currently attempting to take a crack at it manually, but that may prove to take too long... we may be ambushed by... those things..."

"Okay..." The Lieutenant was trying to form several strategies within his mind. "Formation S33, CQB version. Teams: Engineers on the hack. Medics in rear, main fire up front, support in middle row."

"R-roger. You heard the First! Get on it! S33, CQB! Get in formation!... Thanks 131, sir. 72 out."

Shin had a feeling that he and his team were going to act as reinforcement very soon.

* * *

"Inbound shuttle, One-Two-Two, requesting to dock. Quarantine effective. Access denied," EVA's voice reverberated throughout the area.

"Damn! Let 'em in!" 172 cried. "Stupid computer..."

"Shuttle Hatch... open."

"What?" the sergeant stared at the speaker above him.

"Four unauthorized bio-signatures have come in contact with the Starboard Hull. Disengaging Asteroid Shielding."

"Oh shit..." 172 began to feel a cold shiver run down his spine. "They're going to be mincemeat..."

* * *

"Fuck. Take cover!" Kira and his little squad sprinted for the nearest source of cover. However, there were none, so they had to run like hell as little chunks of broken rock hurled toward them as they covered the distance of an entire football field in nearly fifteen seconds.

Thank God for no gravity in space. What would have been five hundred pounds of armor was as light as a feather.

Everything felt light and had a "floating" feeling. The only thing that didn't float were their gravity boots that stuck to the metal of the ship.

"Oh come on! How long do we have to avoid these- yow!" 156 veered left as a large, bowling-ball sized rock smashed into the hull.

"Run if you don't want to become swiss cheese!" 157 screamed.

"You two! Just shut up and run, dammit!" 159 shouted in fear of being slowed down.

Fifty meters ahead of them, was their leader, Kira. He was thankful that he apparently, according the record files, was the number one high-school runner in Japan.

"H-how does he run so fast!?" 180 pondered out loud.

"D-don't think! J-just run! _**Run like your ass is on fire!**_"

* * *

"Hah... hah... ha..." The five of them were under an observation deck, hiding from the rock shower and catching their breath.

Their oxygen levels were low.

"Alright, here, lemme refill..." 157 pulled out an Oxygen Container and pushed the nozzle into a little receiver under her helmet's chin. A little "pueewww" noise emitted as the air escaped the can and into her suit. The others followed suit.

"When is this gonna en-" 159 looked up. "Hm?"

"It's ended..." 180 whispered in relief.

"Alright, we have to continue searching for an entrance." Kira motioned his hand for them to follow.

* * *

"Weapons hot! I want to see those guns firing!" 172 coughed again, trying to give orders over the sound of EP Gauntlets shooting.

As expected, the manual cracking took too long, and the sirens from unauthorized access alerted all the mutated creatures in the area... which was definitely a bad thing. Now the thirty surviving ABS units were fighting for their lives as various... monsters attacked them from all sides.

"Sir! We've cracked!" an Engineer-class unit, 166 affirmed their success.

"Alright! Engineers and Support Units! Move in! You know the objective!"

"Yes, sir!"

* * *

"Okay... charge is in place..." 156 let the adhesives stick to the base of the steel door. "Ready to blow."

"Affirmed, spread out." Kira took cover behind some pipes as others did the same. "Igniting..." He thumbed the trigger, and the bomb exploded.

He peered over the pipework and checked if there was a hole.

"Hole is blown, proceed, 159."

She followed her order and aimed her EPG into the ripped clearing.

"Clear!"

* * *

"Fall back! Fall back! Dammit!"

The Failed were overwhelming the group of bio-engineered soldiers. The things screamed like wraiths and clawed like reapers... and were just as fast as they were, if not faster. Especially because they did not have the heavy armor to weigh them down.

But it was the armor that made the difference. The shielding and metal plating would take the hits, while the suckers would fall after several shots from an EPG or a single slice of an energy blade.

However, the odds proved that the ABS platoon would not last forever. The units were severely outmatched, seven to one... and more were coming.

ABS 172 stared as two of his men fell to the attack of the fiends. He gazed as the monsters tore apart the rubberized G-Carbon to shreds and the flesh to chunks.

He then frowned, wondering about an odd thing he hadn't noticed before in all the panic.

Why did they all wear masks?

* * *

"58, Entering Combat Zone."

"59, Covering."

"57, Pursuing 58..."

"56, Standby..."

"31, Standby..."

158 dropped to one knee and aimed his gun at the darkest corners, awaiting anything that my jump out at him. 157 immediately stopped behind him, mimicking his actions.

"Clear!" they both cried.

"56, Entering Combat Zone!" The teen soldier rushed in.

"59, Entering Combat Zone!" The female went a split second later.

"31, Covering... Standby." Kira scanned the area once more.

"31, Entering Combat Zone!" He barrel-rolled and kneeled, aiming his EP Gauntlet at the cracked door leading to the Bridge. "Go!"

Each of them rushed in a single-file line in through the door, passing all the traces of blood on the floor and walls... which they took note of very strictly.

Suddenly, the line halted and scrunched as the lead, 158, stopped in his tracks.

"Whats wrong?" 156 asked, annoyed that he had been forced to bump into his teammate. "Hey ma-..." the boy soldier stopped as his eyes caught sight of something dreadful.

Kira's squad gaped in horror.

Limbs. Limbs upon limbs.

Corpses. Corpses upon corpses.

Blood. Flowing rivers of hot blood, steaming from having been recently exposed to the cold temperature of the air in the room.

There, in the midst of it all, was a lone figure. KIRA squinted to get a clear picture of who it was. To his surprise, it was neither a USCA soldier or ABS unit.

It was a woman. Oddly, her eyes seemed to glow with a tint of red as she looked into his helmeted eyes.

Her hand was at her mouth, her tongue licking off the blood. Shin's eyes furrowed as he speculated and inferred on just what happened.

She spoke with a slight grin upon her face.

"Hello, First-kun... I, the Second, greet you."

* * *

* Sayonara - Usually a form of goodbye meaning that the one who says it won't be coming back. Ooh.

A/N: Wah. It is 1:00 AM.

I have no idea why I am writing it at this hour, but I'm just glad that I'm done. Well, it was a bit difficult to write, and I did feel that this chapter may have been slightly rushed. As well as short...

Oh well. Now the fight between the First and Second begin.

"Bring it on, biatch!" Reviews!


	12. Chapter 011: Maelstrom

I am sick. And possibly have an ear infection.

But here I am, still writing. I must be insane...

...FOR REVIEWS!!! Happy Valentines day- this is my gift to you all.

Yes, the infection will begin. The True Maelstrom.

* * *

"Hello, First-kun... I, the Second, greet you..."

Shin narrowed his eyes. He was not liking this at all.

"Y-you..." he swallowed. "You did... this?"

"Of course I did! Well," she brought a finger to her lips. "my fellow men and I...ha...haha..."

Shin drew his saber. His fellow remaining soldiers followed his lead.

"Ah, ah, ah," she waved a finger, "I wouldn't do that if I were you..." the Second raised a half-dead corpse, still intact, barely living.

"Here's our fellow man, 172, I think..." She gruesomely twisted his arm as he screamed. "Well, if you want to still attack, by all means, do so. Please. I beg you to."

Now ABS 131 couldn't make a clear decision without risking the life of the hostage. Did he go for the kill? Or wait it out? Whichever decision he chose, he'd have to make it fast. 172 didn't look so good... literally.

"Thirty-One... F-First..." 172 coughed... "D-do it... Don't worry 'bout meeeaaaarrrggh!!!" the ABS unit screamed as his leg was broken by the Failed leader.

* * *

"Ng..."

"Sakura..."

"Nnn... leave me alone..."

"Take your medicine..."

"No."

"But you have a temperature of-"

"Let me sleep..."

"You idiot!"

Kin smacked Sakura on the forehead

"Ow... what was that for?" The pink-haired girl rubbed her sore bruise and stood up in bed. "You didn't have to hit me..."

"Sakura," Kin gripped her friend's shoulder tightly. "You have a fever. Take your medicine."

"Ugh... but it tastes horrible." The teenager made a face, indicating that she really did hate it. But she did take the cup and medicine into her hands, and then downed it like she was forcing herself to take poison.

"It wasn't that bad now, was it?" Kin smiled. "Seriously, you act like a little kid when you're sick."

"Why don't you try it then? Bleh..." Sakura lay back down, and pulled the covers over herself.

"Good night..." Kin whispered, as she closed the door. "Seriously... why give your mother such a hard time as to make me come over here?"

* * *

Sakura opened her eyes again. Now that Kin was gone, she could relax a bit.

Looking around, she noticed that she could now see things with hightened sense; everything was clear and detailed. The girl could even see the tiny dust particles laying on her desk. She even saw the remains of smear-marks from the lipstick that she had wiped away several days ago. Even her room didn't even seem all that dark. In fact, with the night light, it seemed as if the blazing sun was still shining into her room.

Then there were her reflexes. Earlier that evening, she had knocked over one of her mother's expensive pieces of china and surprised herself by catching it merely on reflexes... which was impossible.

Sakura looked into the mriror. She frowned as she looked. Before when her blond friend had come in, she had kept her eyes squinted in the dark so that Kin wouldn't see. But now she was sure of it.

The blue of her eyes yellowed as the whites of them darkened to a void-like black.

* * *

"EP Rapid Shot!" Several bursts of energy particles shot from Shin's finger tips. The compressed forms of energy fired like tiny lasers at the older girl.

The Second, despite having been the least experienced of the two, had an upper hand on KIRA. She moved with grace and agility, zipping to and fro throughout the area, dodging each shot successfully.

The First, on the other hand, was filled with rage and was unable to calm down. He was still too angry about 172's death to cool his nerves.

She slashed at him, and chipped off a piece of his armor.

Continually, she would lower his shields, then chip away at his suit, then repeat. And she never got tired.

KIRA was however, and was sluggishly running around, chasing her with a five-hundred pound load on his back. She moved at a speed of 80kph, whereas he was still twenty-five kilometers behind in speed.

It was too hard to keep up.

"EP Bind!" He sent a circle-like wave of crackling energy that would entangle her if it hit. Unfortunately for him, it missed.

"You'll never catch me!" She cried with glee, and ran further ahead.

He ran harder to catch up with her, then noticed an Objective Mark on his HUD. Then he grinned and turned into another hallway, confusing the other enhanced super soldier.

He had to quickly get to the other suit. His cracked helmet wasn't going to hold soon.

* * *

Shin was close. He was almost at the door when...

The vent above him crashed open and out fell the Second.

"Hah!" She grinned madly in his face. He slipped and fell on his back in surprise.

"Found you ~" She licked her lips. Then struck with her fist. Instinctively, Kira rolled and knocked her legs over. Then he pressed the button to open the door, and scrambled inside. Then he immediately locked it behind him.

* * *

Slumped against the door, ABS 131 breathed heavily, trying to catch his breath.

Slowly, he stood and looked at the machinery before him. It was some sort of pod-like receptacle. Of course, he realized that the two feet-like ports on the bottom of the tubing was where he was supposed to stand.

So he did.

"Hello, I am EVA, Electronic Virility Assessor, the Shipboard Artificial Intelligence. Welcome to the Aegis Electronic Reinforcement Operational System. The AERO System is ready to activate. Please input the password."

"Password?" Kira was a bit confused. He didn't have that yet. "Um... I... don't have it?" He mentally scratched his head.

"Then I cannot grant you access. Please try again."

"Dammit."

"I'm sorry, that is not the correct password."

"Ugh. Shut up."

"I'm sorry, that is not the correct password."

Kira frowned. How was he supposed to return to get to the suit now? Damn the stupid Doc! He should have told him how to get the password first! The super-human soldier sighed. He tensed as banging on the door from the outside became evident.

Sooner or later, the Second would tear open the door, and he would be trapped inside. Without the suit, he would most likely die, and fail his mission. Then he wouldn't be able to return to his love, with or without his memories. He closed his eyes and leaned back.

"Sorry, Sakura..." he whispered.

"Please Repeat," EVA's voice boomed within his ears.

"S-Sakura?" he responded in surprise, jolting at her sudden increase in volume.

"Password Confirmed. Activating AERO System. Please Standby.

"W-wait! What's going on-"

His voice was cut off as the cover to the pod was sealed shut and the mechanical devices tore off his current suit.

* * *

The pod spit thrust him out, having finished its job in replacing his old armor.

"What..." Shin was stunned. In a timespan of 120 seconds, he was already standing in his new suit. EVA's voice rang within his ears.

"Welcome to the AERO System, and the EP Seele Schneider: Multi-Blade System."

"Seele Schneider?" Kira raised an eyebrow at the German words. "Soul Cutter... Multi-Blade?"

He looked at himself. Then he looked at the mirrored wall to his right. He gazed upon his own reflection with curiosity.

It was as if he was wearing some kind of reinforced ninja-suit. Everything was covered with rubberized, black G-Carbon. His limbs were reinforced, and then some were covered in a silverish alloy over this black suit.

On the sides of his legs, at his hips, at his rear waist, on his shoulder blades, on his rear arms, and his forearms, lay pairs of rectangular devices. Each of the devices were snapped into some kind of port jutting out from the named areas. According to EVA, they were made to be drawn like beam swords.

Then there was the silver-colored metal that each of these were attached to. It was a high-grade mixture of metals bonded through EP, so it conducted the energy for better shielding. But that wasn't its true upside. The benefit of the plating was that it was sewn into the black G-Carbonized armor so that it didn't wriggle around, and movement was more accessible.

He then stared upon his helmet. Then gasped.

It wasn't really a helmet... more... more of a mask than anything else.

Oddly, the helmet resembled his former standard ABS armored covering, but it was black, and the shape reminded him of a famed, TV-show Gundam head. It even had the V-like crests upon the forehead to make it even more alike to the robot mobile suit. However, it was more smooth like a samurai mask then a Gundam's, and it had a long horizontal slit across the mouth, jagged in some places to make shapes of two "fangs" pointing down.

It was definitely more fearsome than a Gundam robot.

Suddenly, Kira laughed.

He remembered that when he was a just about eight years old, he would see the giant humanoid robots on the screen and shout at his mother that he would pilot one someday as she smiled at his eagerness.

Shin wondered if Dr. Archibald and Dr. Borvinski knew about that too.

Now he was wearing something just like it.

The reinforced eye lenses flashed a bright, brilliant blue.

It was time to kick ass.

* * *

The Second crouched in front of the door as she heard her prey shout from inside the door.

She figured most likely he was making the resolve to come out and attack.

Then her eyes widened as the door flew at her, and behind it... was a whole new person.

* * *

"EP Hyper Booster!" The small back-pack like device on his back revved up, spewing EP particles out of its lower vents like bullets. "Aaaaaaaaahh!" He raised his arms and smashed into the door. Unexpectedly, the door gave way and he continued to fly.

His strength was increased. His speed was doubled. And his EP output tripled.

And his shielding would last as long as he did.

"Aaah!" He drew the first pair of the Seele Schneider weapons from his forearms. They hummed lightly as he waved them around, cutting up the metal walls around the two super-humans, releasing hot yellow sparks.

The blades themselves were three and a half feet in length, a bit longer than the Beam Sabers of the EP Gauntlet. But they were definitely less bulky and lighter to wield.

And the Second definitely seemed to realize that. She bolted for the nearest exit.

"Not so fast!" Shin didn't even have to run. He simply output more Spiritual Energy to his EP Drive and was speedily floated in front of her. ABS 131's feet never touched the ground.

She recoiled in fear of his blades.

Shin was stunned for a moment as the Second fired a large, compressed ball of energy.

"Cero!" She smiled evilly as she knew victory was hers.

His eyes reflected a red hue of EP... no- raw Spiritual Energy, in the form of some kind of laser.

It was fired into his face.

* * *

Kira coughed as he stood up. He was outside the ship, crashed into the side of the hull. Forty meters away, the Second stood in space, facing him.

He looked at her face. She wasn't wearing a helmet, but broken pieces of some kind of skull-like mask were clinging to the side of her face.

_How is she able to breathe without a helmet?_

ABS 131 frowned. He immediately reactivated the discharged blades in his hands and threw them at her like daggers. They flew straight and true, and would have hit, if not for the fact that she had grabbed the handles just in time.

Now she wielded two of his blades.

"Defend yourself!' she screamed. How he heard her voice in space was a mystery. Regardless, Shin raised his arms and drew the two blades from his triceps. Then he threw those too. The Failed leader easily slashed the blades away and continued to close the distance between them. "Huaahh!" She raised and lowered the blades unto him.

"Hergh!" Shin immediately drew the two Seele Schneiders from his waist and rose them to block. "E... EP Multi-Boost System! Activate!"

The Failed Second's eyes widened behind the broken pieces of her mask as concentrated flames of EP fired from KIRA's feet and propelled them toward the wall. Then more particles were ejected from his EP Drive and they made an ascension away from the wall, and into space.

"W-what!?" She cried as he flew away from her, leaving the Failed one stranded, free floating in the void. Realizing her vulnerable situation, she released a high-pitched shriek that caused even the First to cringe in his suit.

Then her "reinforcements" came. Out of the thirty-meter hole that was made by here so-called "Cero", hundreds of masked monsters came crawling out of the hole. Unlike herself, Kira realized that they all had fully covered, skull-masks. He then flew over to them and spotted his other pair of lost blades.

Putting away his two swords, he swooped in between the monsters. They tried to slash at him, but missed. He quickly picked up his two swords and clipped them back into place. Then used another feature of his AERO suit.

Raising his hands in front of him like superman, he extended and pointed all of his fingers at the stationary Second.

"Die... EP Hailstorm."

At that moment, thousands of little bursts of compressed energy particles flew from his hands like machine guns, pelting the Second with heated EP that melted her skin. She screamed in fury as he flew past her. Kira turned and was about to make a second run-through when he saw the familiar red light, and his eyes widened. He was surprised that she still had the strength to counterattack.

He then had an idea.

Using his EP Hyper Boost, he flew right above the legion of enemies below... and she fired. He quickly burst away, letting her attack spray upon her own Failed kin.

As expected, most of them were obliterated. But there were still to "clean up". So Kira landed on a high pedestal and charged up another attack.

Opening his "mouth", the slit in his mask opened up, revealing another metal "mouth" inside, which also opened, exposing his real mouth. He then let out the assault.

The _Silent Scream_ unleashed an EP laser concentrated directly from the mouth portion of his helmet. All Shin had to do was provide the Spiritual Energy through his voice. Although the name implied so, the Silent Scream was far from silent. A low, deep hum was heard as the laser burned through the remaining hordes of fiends. As his shout finished, so did the laser. Then the helmet promptly closed shut and Kira looked up at the Second.

She was fuming. The girl charged up another one of her "Cero" attacks.

He was running out of patience. He flew around, dodging her attack. To his shock, she charged up another and fired. Then another. And another. And another.

Now Kira was confused. He had surely tired her out even a little bit. How was she able to continually attack with such high outputs of energy?

Then she rested, supposedly, but to the ABS's disappointment, she threw the Seele Schneiders back at him... which he caught and replaced back into their holding spots. Now he had possession of all ten blades.

The Second then went through another volley of red lasers, causing Shin to rethink his tactics. If he ran around, she would just fire away, damaging the ship and risking the lives of the four other ABS units inside. If he flew towards her, she would have enough time to charge another Cero and get him at point blank.

He was biding his time, and was running out of patience.

He'd have to risk it.

Keeping his palms open and fingers extended, he concentrated energy into his fingers. Long, foot-long EP Claws emanated from his fingertips. Then he brought all of his fingers together on his hands together, making a long, single energy blade from each.

So with the two blades, he flew towards the Second.

"Hyper Boost! Three Hundred Percent!" Flying three times his maximum speed, Shin felt the G's on his body bring the strain. Even so, he continued to push it.

He slashed and she brought her hands up at him, blocking with the very laser she was about to fire. It held for about three seconds... then fired.

"Kaaah!" Shin felt the Cero hit him, pushing him back toward the ship. And as soon as that shot was over, the second laser hit him. Then the third slammed him into the hull.

Almost losing consciousness, Shin tried another Silent Scream laser... but he didn't have enough strength left. Then he heard a voice within his head.

Directing his gaze left and right, he tried to search for the source of it. It wasn't the Second. It wasn't EVA.

"W-Who are you..."

"_I am you..._" the voice reverberated with an echo within his mind. "_Let me help you... Hehehhhehehh..."_

As maniacal as the voice sounded, Kira didn't have an option.

So he let the darkness overtake him as he felt a large rush of energy fill his entire body.

Little did Shin know, his eyes turned black, and the blues of his eyes switched to a golden-yellow.

* * *

The Second grinned in delight as she knew that First now lay broken upon the Port-side hull of the ship.

"Die, fool. Hahahah- huh?" She felt a rising disturbance in her sense of Spiritual Energy. "What the..." The woman looked down on the ship as she noticed that the pest was still standing. "Aw hell. Just die! Brat."

Then here eyes widened even further as she noticed a glowing light before her.

* * *

"_Just do as I tell you,_" the voice told him. It chuckled within his mind.

So he followed the voice's orders. And charged. He kept his hands at his right side of the waist, knees bent, and charged the energy between his hands. A blue ball of compressed EP crackled and sparked.

The seconds counter rolled on his HUD. Another 142 seconds.

63 seconds. 32 seconds. 11 seconds.

"EP Hyper Cannon... Flare-Mode... Charging... EP Particle Compression Rate: 98 percent...

… _**Gran Ray Cero!**_** Fire!**"

KIRA thrust his arms forward, and faced his palms toward the enemy as a huge burst of blue Spiritual Energy fired at the Second. It was the biggest form of any laser he had ever seen... if one could call it a laser. More like a beam of energy that waved and spiraled toward the target...

… and obliterated everything in its path.

His feet were being forced into the metal of the hull as the sheer power of the Gran Ray Cero pushed him back. But Shin would not kneel. He had to keep up with pushing against the energy blast or else he would be crushed under its weight.

For what seemed like hours, the powerful Cero died down, and Shin let his arms just float in place. His arms and hands were steaming from the heat of having used such an attack.

Then pain racked his mind, body and soul.

* * *

Back in Tokyo, Sakura was cluching her head. Utter feelings of hurt and bodily injuries hit her all over.

"Gu... ah... geh... urgh..." Sweating as she held her hands in place, she was fighting the pain. "...argh... hah.. hah..." she breathed heavily.

Then she let out a roar of large, feline proportions.

* * *

Shin let out a lion-like roar howl. Opening the slits in his helmeted face, he let out the animal-like roar.

"_**Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrr!!!**_"

* * *

"_SHIIIIIIIIIIINNNN!!!_" she cried to Space.

* * *

"_**SSAAAAKKUURAAAAAAAAAA!!!**_" he shouted to Earth.

* * *

A/N: Blargh. I'm ded. After this I think I'm going to sleep... if my sister stops pestering me to watch her play Zelda on the Wii.

How did you like it?

Did you like how eerily some of the characters experienced - ahem - Hollow-like symptoms?

Favorite line:

"EP Hyper Cannon... Flare-Mode... Charging... EP Particle Compression Rate: 98 percent...

… _**Gran Ray Cero!**_** Fire!**" - do you have any idea how cool that may sound in Japanese?

Japanese Version: EP Hyper Cannon... Furea Modo... Juuden... EP Ryuushi Ashkuritsu: Kyuujyuu-Hachi pacento... Gran Ray Cero! Hassha!

Then imagine something like a miniature gundam doing Kamehameha and releasing this insane beam attack thingy that is called the Gran Ray Cero.

Yes... I know, I'm sick and am letting my imagination run free. But that's how I write cool chapters like this one.

Bye, and leave some reviews as to how this chapter went.


	13. Chapter 012: Shinigami

The Infection is not over...

Well, I hoped you guys like that battle that I implemented into the last chapter.

Unfortunately for our main protagonist, his troubles are not over yet! They are far from over.

* * *

"ABS 156, broadcasting on all COM channels... Doctor Jacob Archibald and Dr. Rousseau Borvinski have been rescued and secured. Alpha Team, boarding USS Abraham shuttle now."

Static.

"This is ABS 156... ABS 131, come in... Come in 131!"

More static was heard.

"Damn." 156 turned to his team mates. "He said that we'd have to leave the colony at 1500 (03:00pm) regardless. Guess this is it..."

The last remaining ABS unit was a bit worried about their current leader's position. They two scientists and four soldiers all had seen the powerfully bright explosions and beams of light that flashed all around the port side of the hull from afar, wondering what in the world was going on. The ABS squad had zoomed in with their eyes, but failed to keep up with the one light that zipped all around the free-floating Failed Second.

In slow motion however, they came to a conclusion that it was indeed the First, but with a cool new armor upgrade.

"It's only a prototype," Borvinski had grumbled, seemingly unsatisfied with his work. But Archibald new that the man was beaming with pride inside.

Everyone strapped into the the seats of the spacecraft, and prepped for launch.

"240 'till launch."

They waited as the seconds rolled by.

"150... 140... I hope the ship doesn't blow early," 156 whispered.

"Just shut up and man the ship..." 157 muttered. She too was nervous.

"85 seconds..."

They grasped their seat belts tightly.

"45...

...Twenty...

...Ten seconds...

...Five... four... three... two... one! Launch!"

* * *

"Nn... ng..." Kira opened his eyes. His vision was blurred. "... uuhhh..."

A few seconds passed as his mechanical eyes began to readjust to the pressure.

"Wha..." He tried to turn his head to move. "Agh!" His entire body shook in pain, going through convulsions as he tried to make the slightest movement.

Then he began to loose focus, losing consciousness as the Abraham behind him began to self-destruct.

"This is it..." he let out a meek little laugh. "This is where I die..."

He closed his eyes and smiled, knowing that his end was inevitable. However, he couldn't help but feel that two pairs of hands pull him away from imminent danger.

* * *

"Damn..." 158 stared out the shuttle's circular window. He observed as the USS Abraham exploded, miniature blasts setting off all over in a chain-reaction sequence, sending trillions of tons of metal and burnt materials out into all directions of space. Nowhere did he see their beloved First within all of that fire. Not that he expected to... There was simply no way anyone could survive that impact, with or without an EP shield. He sighed as he could only accept the obvious.

Their leader was dead.

"Were heading home... to Earth."

"Home?" 157 raised her tone. "What home?" She laughed. "The Abraham was our home! Now its gone!"

"Come on..." 159 began to stress. "Let's not argue about this... Not when the First is..." her voice drifted off.

The shuttle boarded members quieted down at that, saddened, and chose to look out the window instead.

* * *

Sakura was in bed, under the covers, and was being watched over by her mother and friend.

"W-what could have made her scream like that... I don't understand..." Kin was all too nervous.

"Well..." Kiyodama Kimiko frowned while wiping her daughter's sweat-filled brow. It was hot with an intensely heated temperature. "... it could have been a nightmare induced from her fever..." She knew how close her daughter's relationship was to Shin. The woman had hoped that Sakura would have healed her wounds somewhat over the past year, but her pain was recurring, never-ending. She sighed in sorrow for her child's emotional damage.

* * *

"...ge... guh... ah?" Kira awoke. He began to turn his head, fearing that he may experience another spasm of intense pain. To his surprise, it never came. He looked "up".

"Oh shit." He gasped.

Right above him, or under him to be more precise, was the Earth and all of its glory...

… and he was floating five meters away from the atmosphere's surface.

"This... this can't be good." Slowly, he reached out with both hands toward the surface. Of course, he couldn't reach it, but he did want his palms to face it. Using the little booster devices on his hands, he gently let a tantamount of EP particles to flow from them, and pushed himself away. This way, despite being pushed away, he would counteract the Earth's gravity and stay in stationary orbit... for a little while anyway. He couldn't stay drifting forever; he'd have to conjure up some plan.

To start, he'd use the "password" to unlock his memories. As Kira new, as of the moment, he had all the time in the world. Why not take advantage of floating and space and enjoy the view while he'd regain his past life? He opened up the Command Prompt on his HUD.

Q-GEN: A FUNCTION...

ACCESS PERSONAL FILES...

PASSWORD REQUIRED_...

Kira input "Sakura" and awaited the next response.

SEXDRIVE... ENABLED

EMOTIONENGINE... ENABLED

"Wait, what?" Kira frowned at that. "It was suppressed!?" He was forced to shut his mouth as the next programs executed.

HYPERFLOW... ENABLED (ENABLES KENSEIGAN HYPERVISION)

OVERDRIVE... ENABLED (ENABLES SP EP MAXIMUM OUTPUT)

Shin pondered over those properties. They could be very useful...

His thoughts literally halted as the next program opened.

EXECUTE

The sudden wave of information crashed into him. Nearly eighteen years of life assaulted his current Memory Logs and filled their place, appearing as flashes here and there within his field of vision, causing his eyes to twitch every couple seconds. His head even jerked a bit.

After what seemed like months of information retrieval, Shin gazed upon the Earth as his memories took root within himself.

He finally realized how much he and Sakura had been in love with each other.

"S-Sakura..." A few droplets of tears ran down the insides of his bullet-proof lenses.

The memories of him and his love... The times that they spent time together talking together over the phone. The times that they went out to go shopping and have fun at recreational areas. The times that they would support each other in the hardships of high school and studying. The times that they would go out on a "secret date" and experience the thrill of hiding from their friends.

Then there were the times that they would just be together. The times that they would sit down and make the effort to understand and further their relationship. The times that they would lie down on the grass while staring at the stars and wondering what their future had in store for them. The times that they looked back on their past years in life and laughed. They times that they cried over something and held each other in each other's arms.

There were too many of those moments.

Shin's eyes closed, and his brows tightened. His hands neared his sides, palms facing away from the planet now, toward his feet.

Currently, he was at an exact ninety degree angle in concordance to the surface, perpendicular to the ground. All he had to do was wait a couple minutes as his tracking systems registered what country he was hovering over.

It was a long way down, but he'd have to do it.

Slightly boosting himself, Kira allowed himself to be pulled into the atmosphere.

* * *

"Tango!" Gunfire and cannon shots filled the air with loud noises.

"Enemy reinforcements spotted! 300 seconds until contact!" A soldier ducked as a few rifle rounds flew over his head. "Sarge!"

"Damn!" The other man in the group coughed. "Where's the USCA ABS platoon when ya need 'em?" He turned to a private on his left. "You! Call into HQ over the COM, we need help ASAP!"

"A-acknowledged!" The amateur gunman put down his gun as he pulled out a wireless communications device.

Currently, Alpha 2 Base Station, several miles south of Doha, the capital of Qatar in the middle east, was under attack. The station was originally set up to keep watch on the government as peace treaties took hold of the land. Unfortunately, there were rebels - those who were against the idea that the people of the desert should join the people of the colder grasslands.

The rebels weren't expected to launch a full scale attack on a battalion five times their size, but here they were, laying waste to American soldiers.

The Americans weren't even supposed to be in Qatar, according the Isolationist Act of 2312 AD. But, the USCA, in its efforts to build friendly relations on solid ground, decided to supposedly help a "country in need." In this case, the country that was being picked on by other nations: Qatar. It was one of the last-standing, "free" countries that were not in the Federation or the League. Normally, one would think that such a small country would beg for help, but no. The Middle Easterners preferred to be left alone and untouched by the "white men," left to their traditions and old ways of life.

This was the result of the USCA's false hope, and now things were coming to the end of a long four months.

"Sir... I-I don't know what to say, COM is offline!"

"The hell?" The sergeant turned to the private. "Lemme see that." The younger man handed it over. "Hmm... looks like... its jammed." The superior officer muttered in disbelief.

"I thought the enemy didn't have the means to jam our COMLINK systems..."

"That's what I thought too..." the man's eyes furrowed. Then he turned to another soldier in the distance. "Jenkins!"

"Yes, sir!" the corporal immediately saluted, although with some difficulty as enemy fire went over the barracks.

"We need to rally up the troops, and-"

"...um... Sarge?" the private whispered.

"Not now, private, I'm talkin'- so I'm sayin-"

"...Sarge... Sarge..."

"Dammit! Priv-"

"Um, Sarge," Jenkins tapped the man's shoulder and pointed behind him. "I think you should look... sir."

Sergeant Henderson whipped around at what captivated every man on the battlefield at the moment, and he too, was drawn to the flaming meteorite in the sky.

"What in God's name is that!?"

* * *

"This is Japanese World News, broadcasting live. Currently, it is 12:30 P.M., and fifteen minutes ago, the USS Abraham, a USCA colony with over a thousand inhabitants and crew members, self-destructed.

Now, we do know that thirty-one hours prior to the incident, the on-board members of the science facility within the ship contacted other vessels to 'stay away' as a result of on-board conflicts or emergencies. These events are believed to be the cause of the vast explosion and the meteor shower over the HAL and Japanese Territory last night.

Now, five miles south of Doha, Qatar, the USCA forces are under attack.... and our on-site crew has live footage... and the battle has stopped."

"What..." Sakura, Kin, and Harumi's eyes were glued to the screen.

They were bored, and were watching live broadcasts of the news for Kira's squad, endlessly flipping channels until this came up.

"It..." the female reporter's voice stuttered a bit. "It looks like a meteor... from the Abraham..."

The girls' eyes widened.

* * *

"ABS 131... Self-Planned Mission... Armed Intervention 046, Initiating...

… HUD locked on to targets..."

* * *

"... a meteor... from the Abraham...

...no, wait - it's..."

"It's?" Harumi whispered as the tension rose.

* * *

"126 seconds until contact...

Activating collision countermeasures..."

* * *

"... a rocket?"

The cameraman's view was obviously trying to catch the image of what was plummeting from the sky toward them, but could not. Suddenly, the object flared and drastically increased in speed.

"... that's not a meteor or a rocket! It's a man!"

* * *

"30 seconds..."

* * *

"What the fuck is that!?"

Henderson readied his rifle.

Soon enough, a huge explosion shook the ground as the missile-like object smashed into the ground between the two forces.

* * *

"Targets... Qatar, USCA. Beginning Armed Intervention by ABS Protocol, Article 14, Section 2. Engaging."

* * *

The Qataran rebel leader wiped the sweat from his brow as the image within the dust cloud "turned" toward his men.

He then gasped as shining plates of black and silver gleamed in the desert sun as the sands cleared.

Within the combinations of dark metal, shone two pieces of glowing sapphire eyes that pierced his gaze.

* * *

"O-open fire!" A rebel cried in fear. Not caring who had shouted the order or who was in charge, every solider followed the command.

Immediately, hundreds of bullets were unleashed upon the dark knight before them.

Various sounds of clanging and deflected artillery filled the air as the metallic, robotic cyborg stood in front of them, taking the hits that would have brought any man down to his knees. In the sight of their failed standard rounds, they moved on to the heavier weaponry: the tanks. Of course, the standard 24th Century Middle Eastern tank would have at least a 120mm cannon with self-guiding missiles or Anti-Tank bullets.

Either way, the metal-man wasn't going to survive. Several blasts of powerful ordnance exploded upon impact. Surely the enemy couldn't have survived.

Or so the rebels of Qatar thought.

* * *

"Rounds deflected: Amount Not Available...

… Shield Status: Recharging... 93 Percent...

… Damage..."

Kira smirked.

"... Zero."

* * *

The American soldiers could only watch with gaping faces as the hero before them slightly turned his "face" toward them, and then leaped toward the enemy.

"It's the ABS!" someone cried.

And indeed it was. Everyone's faces lit up as the pride of the USCA forces had finally come to assist them in their time of need.

* * *

"It's the ABS!" the television set burst.

Everyone on the couch gasped.

"S-Shin..." Sakura huddled closer to her friends as excitement filled her chest.

* * *

Kira swooped in for the kills, drawing his custom Seele Schneider blades and activating the AERO's Multi-Blade System.

Having two of the beam sabers within his hands, he twirled, effectively, cutting down many of the Qataran men around him. Using the EP Boosters, ABS 131 quickly hovered over the sand at an alarming speed and slash open the throats of some men who tried to grab hold of him. Right after, the super-soldier ducked, spreading his legs, and then rotated the torso to get in a cut down more of the men. He then tucked his legs back in and jumped into the denser areas of enemies.

One soldier tried to take a machete and cut _him_ down. Unfortunately for that man, Kira turned and spun on the tips of his feet like a top, and the Qataran rebel's arms came off, spewing blood from their ends. The super human then proceeded to chop of the man's head, creating an organic fountain of red, bodily fluids.

Another man had successfully dodged the blades, and tried to attach a grenade to his armor. Of course, the EP shielding prevented the grenade from ever hitting anything, and Shin's enhanced reflexes allowed him to kick it away. Using his feet, the cyborg knocked the offender to the ground and then stomped upon the rebel's leg, forcing out a scream from the receiver of the blow. The ABS unit quickly ended the cry by effectively stabbing the man's head with one of his Seele Schneiders.

Just as he was about to attack more of the rebels, a tank missile caught him off guard, forcing him to quickly shift backwards and evade the attack.

Turning his attention toward the vehicle, Kira took his current blades and threw them underhanded, like two throwing knives, and hit the tank dead on. The blades sunk into the ballistic armor, all the way to the handles, and stuck there with a "thunk". Upon that sound, the cyborg used his boosters to fly over to the enemy tank and grabbed his two blades, then pulled them upwards, cutting open the tank bottom-up. Twisting the blades a bit more and slashing sideways, the ABS unit exposed the innards of the tank... and the men inside.

He then "opened" his "mouths" and began to emit the Silent Scream.

In space, it was but a low hum of strong vibrations.

On Earth, a high-pitched screech penetrated everyone's ears, causing them to nearly go deaf as a laser began to tear apart and blow up the tank beneath the cyborg's feet.

* * *

The sound began to die out and flicker on and off as the television set tried to give off the high-pitched tone of the attack that Kira had used to kill the men inside the tank.

So far, everyone around the world watching was appalled at the soldier's tactics and means of "getting rid of" the enemy.

The general audience wasn't used to seeing so much blood. Usually, all that was shown in wars was men shooting guns and then people getting mowed down by bullets. There wasn't that much blood in that sort of situation.

But here, Sakura, Kin, and Harumi witnessed a scene of absolute terror and mercilessness as the Shin that they thought they knew slaughtered the men of Qatar.

He was an embodiment of the Grim Reaper himself, sporting a blackish armor and blades of death.

They couldn't quite tell how to read or react to the event of Kira's actions.

* * *

Kira stood upon the remains of the smoldering tank as the Qataran rebels abandoned their posts, dropped their weapons, and left their wounded behind.

To add a more intimidating effect on their retreat, Kira opened his mechanical mouths again, and let out a terrifying roar that shook the witnesses with all sorts of fears.

The results were catastrophic.

On the battlefield, including Americans, every soldier's knees shook, as some even wet their pants, cowering in their lack of courage to look at the death god.

The ABS unit himself, however, was looking down upon the rebels fleeing for their lives, seeing nothing but insects scurrying away from a more fearsome predator.

* * *

Sakura could only stare at the image of what was supposedly - what she knew to be - her boyfriend.

A tear rolled down, but it was not from sadness, but from being afraid. Her teeth were clenched, her eyes wide open, and her eyebrows scrunched up, her breathing became heavy and her gaze could not be moved from the screen.

Kin and Harumi didn't know what to do. It wasn't as if they could teleport the three of them to the Middle East and see Shin right then. They sat, and hugged their best friend as more drops rolled down her face.

* * *

Kira was about to take a step to get off the tank when his HUD began to blink, alerting him that a spiritual phenomena was about to occur.

He spun around, looking for the source of the disturbance.

Was it going to be another monster? The soldier tightened his grip on his blades. Bending his knees and slightly crouching toward the ground, he steeled himself for whatever danger that might come. Shifting his weight around for balance, he lay in wait, patiently standing as the seconds slipped by.

Then a bright flash obscured his vision, and a sword - a literal, metal-bladed sword came down upon him.

Shin didn't even have time to think. He merely reacted to the oncoming attack, raising his own blades to block the strike. Unexpectedly, his EP swords met resistance, instead of cleanly slicing the enemy weapon in half. This was a problem.

His HUD blinked again, and he turned his head to see another sword slash at his back. Using his advanced reflexes, he pushed the first sword away, then repositioned himself to block the swords with both of his own Seele Schneider energy blades. When that happened, his heads-up-display once again called for his attention as two more swords, each from the front and back, was about to hit his armor.

Knowing that it would be somehow dangerous to have those swords hit, he pushed away again and decided to bring up a new tactic. Throwing up the energy sword in his left hand to confuse his attackers, he drew another EP bladed weapon from his left shoulder blade and swung. Then as the Seele Schneider he had thrown began to fall down, he opened his the outer metal mouth and caught it between the fangs.

Using the three blades at once, he blocked all four of the swords that attempted to cut him in two.

With his eyes, he glanced left and right, wondering just who was attacking him.

As the figures came into focus, he realized that it was not a monster that he was fighting, but four people... or what he thought was people.

Each of the attackers wore a black kimono, with traditional Japanese clothing. One of them had a white overcoat on. His mind flashed back to the memory on the Abraham. The time when he first tested his ability to see Spirit Beings.

Assuming they were of Japanese origins, he spoke in the language most appropriate to the situation.

"Who are you?" His mouth did not move, but his voice echoed from within his mask.

"Heh," the man with the white overcoat, sleeves seemingly ripped off, smirked. "Eleventh Division Captain of the Gotei Thirteen... nice to meet ya."

With that, the man overpowered Kira's left arm, causing the super soldier to jump away to safety.

"Captain? Gotei Thirteen?" Shin was confused. He was in the middle of the desert, and was supposed to be fighting a monster, but here he was, fighting human beings.

"What, you never seen a _Shinigami_ before?" the man chuckled. "Hahahahahaha!"

Under his helmet, Shin's eyes widened. A death god? It wasn't entirely possible. But... they looked so... so human. Then again, the ABS unit recalled in some reports that there were images of what seemed to be men and women in black clothing that fought with swords and powers against the very monsters that Kira himself was created to fight against.

Taking a count of just how many were in the area, Kira did a Spirit mass count.

On his sensors, he read about over ten Shinigami, half of which wore white, and then the rest without a white overcoat, but an armband instead.

"Once again, I will ask you..." Kira prepared himself. "Who are you?"

"Oi, Kenpachi" a man with a straw hat and pink robe called out to the spiky-haired warrior. "You sure this kid isn't an idiot?"

"I dunno," the 'Kenpachi' guy answered. "Whattya think, Shunsui?" he replied back to the first man.

"Hmm, well, you did tell him we were death gods..."

"... and the poor fool probably has no idea what the hell is going on..." a shorter, white haired boy muttered.

"Hey, Toshiro, you of all people should even be able to school this guy, right?" Kenpachi laughed.

"I-it's Hitsugaya! Captain Hitsugaya to you! And Matsumoto, shut up!" He pushed away a woman with blondish, orange hair away as she tried to hug him.

"Kurosaki... what do you suppose we do?" a deep voice flowed from the lips of a polished man with straight hair.

Kira's head snapped toward the man. How did he know his name? The boy was confused as to what was going on, until he heard another voice reply.

"Hmm, I can't decide, Captain Kuchiki," a orange-haired man stood, facing Shin. "What should we do with him?"

"I say we make him kneel..." 'Kuchiki' closed his eyes. "...but then again that might not be the best idea... He is your kin, after all."

"Ah, of course," the other Kurosaki drew his blade. "That he is."

* * *

A/N - oohhhhh shnaps.

I wonder how this will work out.

Originally, this chapter was much shorter and was finished a while ago, but I was unsatisfied with the way it was written and how it ended. So, to make it much more enjoyable for myself and readers, I decided to extend the chapter and rewrote it. Of course, now it is the longest chapter I have written so far, and I would love to write more, but I have a cold and need to study for a quiz tomorrow.

That being said, I hope that after school or sometime this week I will see many reviews and can get another chapter done before the weekend is over.


	14. Chapter 013: Rebirth

Well, I'm back again. I've been busy, high school graduation, parties, birthday, whatnot. Not a good combo. Ugh. But for all of you who have wanted to see a new chapter in so long, here it is!

Enjoy the chapter.

* * *

"...That he is..."

Shin immediately tensed as the man unsheathed his blade.

"You're... you're related to me?" the cyborg's voice echoed through the speakers within his helmet. He wasn't about to place his trust in a supposed relative that he just met now. Anything could happen... and the sharp sword in the man's hand didn't look to friendly either.

"I am," the other Kurosaki answered. "We're here to evaluate your status as a potential threat to Soul Society and The Balance."

"Wha-"

"Commence!"

Instantly, the Shinigami were on him like a pack of dogs on meat. He was forced to use his EP Boosters to fly into the air... only to discover that they could "float" in the air. That surprised him.

"Crap."

"Not crap, boy..." Kenpachi shouted, "It's supposed to be 'yes!' for the love of battle! Hahahah!"

Kira frowned at that, he veered left, nearly running into three more death gods. It was the shorty and the busty strawberry-blond.

"Tch!" He sheathed his Seele Schneiders and used his hands to shoot. "EP Hailstorm!" Thousands of little bursts of energy soared through the air at the two.

"Growl! Haineko!" Rangiku Matsumoto released her shikai, unleashing the dusty ash that would transform all it touched into the same substance, only furthering its coverage.

"Sit upon the Frozen Heavens, Hyourinmaru!" An watery, icey, chinese dragon appeared as Toshiro Hitsugaya cried out the chant.

Shin almost froze in shock as the the swords changed shape into something ethereal and mysterious. He forced himself to regain control of his shaking limbs and zipped through the air and into safety... or so he thought. The dragon and ash chased him, causing him to continuously fly and evade the oncoming attacks. Then he ran into Shunsui Kyoraku. He drew forth the EP blades from his fingertips and brought them down on the captain.

"Hmm... You are far too tense, young one." He chuckled. "Your dance is far too tense... Flower wind rage and flower god roar, heavenly wind rage and heavenly demon sneer! Katen Kyokotsu!" With that, two chinese broadswords were brought into existence, forcing back Shin's own energy blades from his hands came back at him. He struggled to keep the upperhand.

Suddenly, he saw a blur of white and black as two jabs were made at his suit, lowering his shields to 83.86 percent.

"What the fuck..." He let go on his clash with Captain Kyoraku and flew away, but was caught in a torrent of stabs that kept lowering his shields. It took only a moment for his eyesight to adjust. He caught the blade in his hands with the last flash.

"So you've seen through my Shunpo..." Kuchiki Byakuya's face tightened. "Impressive... but I'm still not going to use my Shikai on someone like you."

Wordlessly shirking aside the disrespect with a soldier's attitude, Kira quickly pulled up his HUD's analysis report. According to his Kenseigan, the Shinigami were able to float in the air and zip around wherever they wanted to by creating a path of soul energy from there feet to their destination. Simply put, they use a lot less energy by using minimal power with this method then constantly bursting EP through his jets. He decided to try and copy it.

He flashed through the air, catching the other death gods off guard. Shin came to a halt, and checked his feet as he even surprised himself. The ABS unit was surely standing on thin air.

"That's useful..." He turned and looked at the Shinigami from a distance. His eyes caught their shocked faces. "Play time's over. Cero!"

The enemies scattered from the unexpected attack. They regrouped and then a giant cleaver sword was in his face. He used his new found technique to dodge the swipe.

His kin attacked.

"You! Who are you!?" He raised his hands and fired the EP Rapid Shot and another Cero.

"I'm Kurosaki Ichigo! Captain of the Zero Division! Defend yourself!"

"Argh!" Shin pointed both hands at the oncoming attacker and fired two Ceros at once at a steady rate.

"Bankai!" Ichigo shouted. Kira gasped as a sudden rush of reiatsu came onto his senses. He wasn't given enough time to respond, and was hit by a blast of energy from above, causing him to hurl toward the sands below.

An exploding thud made the sand fly into the air and a crater was made where ABS 131 lay.

"S-shit..." He stood up and used Shunpo to fly back into the skies. The biologically enhanced soldier couldn't really catch a glimpse of the orange haired Shinigami.

_From behind!_ A voice within his head shouted. He immediately heeded the warning and used the flash step to get away.

_From above!_ He avoided that attack as well.

_Heheheheheh... now do as I say..._

Kira mentally nodded in acceptance. He received new orders from the dark voice within his mind. It was an instruction on how to use a faster Cero variant.

"Bala!" he roared. However, instead of punching like he was told, he kept his arms extended and shot the bullets of soul power like his other attacks.

Ichigo, who was used to seeing former Espada from his past times punching the Bala was once again caught off guard by his descendant's tactics.

"Your improvisation is good! But still not enough to get me!"

Shin's eyes widened as the man before him increased his speed and appeared right in his face. Kira himself jumped back using the Flash Step and tried to escape, but Ichigo continued to press him into a "corner". In his frustration, he drew two EP Soul Cutters and tried to counterattack. Of course, the other was much more experienced in swordplay and pushed the supersoldier back.

"Why!? Why are you attacking me!?" Shin screamed. His eyebrows furrowed as the other refused to respond. In his anger, he threw his two blades at his ancestor.

"I already stated my reason. Simply to see if you are for or against our cause." Ichigo's eyes stared coldly at the soldier.

"What cause!? How does this accomplish anything?" Shin drew another two blades from his triceps and threw them to further delay the oncoming Shinigami's attack.

* * *

Ichigo gazed at the young soldier.

Beneath all that dense armor, the wizened and aged death god saw the insecure and weak boy within. Behind the orange-haired one's stoic expression, he was screaming at himself to stop. However, that was not an option. By the order of Soul Society's council, the ABS units were all designated as variable weapons... meaning that they were unsure if the existence of such a being would be dangerous to the Shinigami or the Balance they all fought for.

The Balance.

It was a funny thing. They were testing Shin for the same reason as having exterminated the Quincy.

At first glance, from a human's perspective, it was a good thing that soldiers like Shin were able to fight back at monsters that were unseen to the normal man. But to the Shinigami, this was a terrible sin. Why? The Advanced Bio-Engineered Soldiers used reiatsu, soul energy, as their main power source. Like the Quincys, their attacks would be direct energy to body contact, which would instantly disintegrate the soul matter... and of course, everyone new what would happen if that continued.

However, there was one major difference. The ABS utilized human technology, effectively converting Spiritual Energy into Physical Energy. But many of the core properties of the former remained. But how could the Gotei Thirteen know for sure if this wouldn't affect the precious balance that kept everything in place?

...Which was why Ichigo and seniors arrived in the human world to 'test' the young super soldier leader.

But to attack the one with whom he had made so many attempts to save and keep safe, it was much too hard.

* * *

"Rggh..." Shin was making every effort to avoid being cleaved in half. Whatever it was, this so-called Zero Division Captain was seriously about to slice his ass to kingdom come. He'd have to do something fast.

Kira was about to activate the emergency energy reserves, but the voice in his head told him to halt his actions and do the unthinkable.

"What!?" he voiced his shock.

_Do it!_ The eerie voice cried.

_Why!? _Shin detested the voice's choice.

_To live!_

That did it. Shin, despite how crazy the command was, he would have to follow the voice out of self preservation. Besides, the voice had never failed him in the tightest of situations.

He immediately halted in the middle of the captains and let them come.

Then he pulled out the remaining two Soul Cutters in his arsenal and stabbed himself.

* * *

"Wha-!" Ichigo could only look upon his great descendant in disbelief. Shin had just taken his two Seele Schneiders and stabbed himself in his Soul Spirit and Soul Chain. That would mean instant fatality.

However, that wasn't the end of it. The blades grew brighter and the light emitted from them more intense...

… then they blew up.

* * *

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" Shin was on the ground, clawing at the air in pain. "AAAH! AAAAHHHHHH!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

It was the most intense feeling that he had ever felt in his entire life. It was as if someone had taken two torches of eternal flame and just stuck them inside his torso.

His head began to twitch. Unfortunately for him, his Q-Gen wouldn't allow him to fall unconscious, and the blast was so damaging that his pain receptors remained on.

Then he felt his vision fade and fall into void.

* * *

"W-what just happened?" Matsumoto asked in dumb confusion.

"I-I don't know..." Hitsugaya whispered. "He just..."

All the captains could only stare with a dumb look on their faces.

What did happen? Why did it happen? As far as they knew, no sane person would willingly stab themselves so fatally, whether they knew where they were stabbing or not. They all wanted to know.

* * *

"W-where am I?" Shin opened his 'eyes'.

He looked around. To his surprise, there were blocks made of virtual digits, letters, and characters. All around, he saw these blocks and cubes making up buildings and spheres and shapes. It was everywhere. Even in the designated 'sky' he saw a virtualized sun and moon. It was an odd experience. It was as if the world he knew on the outside was all in computer data form where he figured was his mind. So the question was, "is this my mind?"

"Yes," another voice from 'everywhere' answered his question.

"My mind?" he paused. "Who are you?" He looked around to see if there was another who would make an appearance.

"I am you, you are me. We are the same. Heh." It was the voice that had talked to him all along.

"... am I dead?"

"No. Far from it. Your life is only beginning."

"You-" Shin stopped. "Are you... Kira?"

"Yes."

Now Shin had to stop and ponder about that. All this time, he had taken up the name 'Kira' as his own. However, since the beginning he was aware of two existences merging to become one. But since the time of his activation, or Kira's rather, he hadn't questioned it.

"So who... are you in control right now?"

"If you look at it that way... I am in control of your body as long as you reside in here. But I cannot do anything... your body is far too damaged to do anything."

"Why!? Why did you have me do that?" Shin's eyes furrowed.

"Because you needed to survive. Haha... This is the only way. In exactly 3.2 seconds, this place will corrode and fall apart. Then in a total of twenty real-world seconds it will all fall into the abyss and us with it."

"Wha-"

"Calm down. Heh." Kira spoke to him. "The time in the real world is like a minute in here as of now. Now, come find me."

"Tch." Shin now knew he had no choice but to comply. He quickly ran around trying to find 'Kira'.

He ran around frantically, but there simply was no hope. The inner world was too big, definitely proportional to the world outside. He ran and ran, but was getting no where. How would he find the artificial intelligence at this rate? All was doomed... unless...

"Hmm..." Shin reached to a wall of data. He touched it with his hand, and closed his eyes, concentrating to find his other self.

If what Kira said was true, then Kira was Shin, and he was Kira.

"Found you."

* * *

The captains stared at the ground below and the body that lay upon it. Some solemnly gave a slight prayer, thinking that Shin had committed suicide in a desperate act of self-termination.

"Hmm?" Shunsui raised an eyebrow from under his hat, looking at the corpse once again. "Eh!"

He and the others flash-stepped away in time before a beam of light consumed them.

* * *

In the middle of the desert, a white knight was surrounded by white light.

A warrior dressed in his white garbs and blue body armor, armed with blades of pure energy.

Shin and Kira, the superhuman who had become a Shinigami.

* * *

A/N – Dude, I pulled an all-nighter for this one and even drew a sketch of what I think Shin's new Shinigami armor may look like (not official). I will post the link on my profile page soon.

How was that after a year of absence?


	15. Chapter 014: Hesitation

Okay, glad that some of you are with me in reading this, and that there are some new readers out there.

BTW, to answer the one question as to why the hell I wasn't around to continue my fanfic, is the most common answer: school and work. Not only that, I worked my butt off to get a better-than-average-computer. For those who are into computers, it is an HP Slimline s5150t with Intel Core 2 Quad (2.5 GHz), 8GB DDR3 RAM, Blu-Ray Player, Nvidia GeForce GT 220 (with both HDMI and DVI) video card, 640GB hard drive... and it's all the size of my xbox 360. Maybe like 1.5x bigger (but shorter). Woot. Not to mention I used a coupon that took off $350. More Woot. … but it still cost me a grand... T_T

* * *

To start off the whole review selection... er... review, I would like to answer a question that was asked by FFF (Flurry of Freezing Flames). Oddly enough, it peaked my interest into going further with the Shinigami no Seito universe. He asked:

"Have you ever thought of doing an AU of this story without all the complicated Sci-Fi mumbo jumbo (you know, like a third World War with Hollows, Arrancars, and the like being on the enemy side while Shin and whoever else are on the good side?)?"

Upon reading that question, I said, "Yeah... but aren't I sort of doing that now?"

Which means yes, there will be a great war. IF you have read my latest chapter (14) upon my return to , then you will be able to infer that Shin has indeed some sort of spiritual powers. I won't say which, but it will be revealed to you in further readings. Thus, Shin/Kira is now a shinigami and like every hero, there will be battles that come to make his name known.

And as for whitedragon17: "I'll do what I gotta do, at least you estimated correctly on the first part of your guess so far. And you'll find out how badass the new Shin can be soon enough..."

By the way, any of you watch gundam? Like... gundam seed? Ever see the Lohengrin laser, or in more technical terms: the Positron Blaster Cannon, you know, the bigass laser that's red on the inside and blue on the outside and has a bunch of electricity all over it? It'll help you visualize some things.

* * *

"What.... What the fuck is that thing?" Kenpachi's uncovered eye narrowed. He held his sword firmly in his right hand, but at a second glance, anyone could tell that the tip of his blade was quivering.

"Hm... I can't tell, Ken-chan... It's hard to tell, but its scawwyy," his little pink-haired midget lieutenant whispered.

"I-I don't know." Toshiro could barely get out. The amount of reiatsu that the being from within the beam of light was outputting was simply amazing.

All the present captains and their respective partners watched on as the power fluctuated, causing the sands and winds to whip around wildly like snakes in a pit. Each of them tightened the grip on their blades, hoping that they would not have to fight was awaiting them within the light. But that was already out of the question. Whatever was on the way was going to seriously dominate them and kick them around like toys... like Aizen would have several centuries ago had the Vizards not interfered.

"Brace yourselves..." Ichigo muttered. Then he brought a hand over his face indicating he was about to unleash something he hadn't let out in a long time.

* * *

The light stopped.

Shin's vision blurred, then gradually cleared.

He blinked. Then blinked again. Then he looked down at himself. He was clothed in all white, adorned by metallic black armor plating. His chest, shoulders, arms, hands, abdomen, legs and feet. The ABS unit was dressed for battle, but it was as if the burden of his USCA issued suit was lifted and replaced with something so much lighter and flexible. And he had some kind of cool white cloak/cape with black lining that covered his entire body down to his feet, pulled back to reveal his armor and sword. But what confused him more was the sudden weight on his head.

Reaching up to grab it, he touched his face... to realize that he couldn't. There was some kind of mask.

Then he realized his HUD was blinking for an Armor Acknowledgment.

_Hmm?_ The silver-haired Shinigami allowed the incoming request to come in and accepted it. It read, "AERO Shinigami Armor Permutation. Version 1.0"

"Installing... Software Installed, Driver Installed... Loading Scan..."

As the words rolled across his mental screen, he felt Kira's knowledge flood his conscience. The armor that was on his person was his original AERO prototype armor, changed or transformed, into something new...

However, something was off. Shin looked at himself and the other Shinigami. His attire was definitely different from theirs. Another flash caught his attention. An indicator alerted his current "status" in "Death God Mode."

"Level... One?" He read aloud.

The soldier immediately noticed the others around him tense and prepare for the worst.

"Uh... wait..." he looked down at the ground and scratched the top of his helmet. "I don't know how I did this... really..."

The newly changed ABS unit looked up at them and frowned.

"Ohh... shit."

* * *

"Haaah!" Ichigo drew upon his vizard mask and instantly initiated his power.

The other ten were upon him like vultures on a dead carcass. He used a very... very fast shunpo and evaded a bloody death. The orange-haired captain was the first to react. He quickly mirrored Shin's movements and chased him as the two zipped around the sky. It was almost as if the two were simply teleporting to random locations within the heavens.

"Hrr!" The vizard leader brought his black katana down on Shin, forcing him to block with his metal forearm guards. This only seemed to annoy the attacker. "Draw! Unsheathe your blade, Kurosaki Shin!"

"I don't have to!" Shin whipped his arms out, causing the recoil to make the blade snap backwards and away from himself. Actually, what Shin had said was a lie. He didn't really know if he had the power to take them all on without a sword. Did he? Or did he not? It was simply a matter of time. All the boy had to do was fight unarmed and see how long it would take before he was in danger... but then again, he might be dead by then otherwise. Of course, if he did unsheathe the sword, he wouldn't know what his full abilities were.

Oh well...

He would continue to fight without a sword. The armored death god zipped away with a burst of sound.

* * *

"Sonido? The hell?" Hitsugaya looked left and right, trying to detect the enemy's movement. "It's as if he wasn't a Shinigami at all... What if -" He stopped abruptly and froze as a though flashed through his mind. "Espa-" The younger captain was forced to block and incoming assault, lest he let his head be blown off. "What!?"

"What the hell's a 'Sonido'?"

Toshiro looked into the solid blue LED eyes of a cold samurai-like mask. The cold, emotionless face that stared into his eyes made him shiver... almost. He couldn't possibly let the target know that he was in fear. The normally stoic boy slashed his Hyourinmaru to chase away the attacker. Unfortunately, the enemy simply grabbed his blade...

… and snapped it in half.

* * *

It was his turn to be on the offensive. Shin broke 'Toshiro's' blade and punched him square in the face, sending the youngest captain sprawling, flying through the air a good fifteen yards. He spun around, finding Matsumoto who tried to use Haineko to obliterate him, but he simply used his superior speed to appear behind her and land a chop to her neck, effectively putting her out of commission.

The super-Shinigami turned and zipped unto his next target, Captain Shunsui. He efficiently jabbed and twirled, calmly making use of the older man's movements and tried to take advantage of openings.

"This is great, young one! Your dance has improved dramatically... but er, you're too tense. Try to... lighten up!" The flowery-robed man thrust forward with both of his blades and tried to catch Shin in a pincer motion. The ABS unit had to lean back to avoid getting his neck sliced. He slapped both blades up into the air and jumped toward the captain, hoping to get the man off guard. "Oh! Too quick! You should have waited just a bit-"

"Where is your partner?" Shin questioned, while currently trying to avoid his head getting chopped off.

"Oh... you mean my vice-captain, Nana-chan?" The captain pointed down below. 'She's on the ground, taking notes... She's not much of a fighter tho-"

The man's eyes almost popped out as he realized his foolish mistake.

Shin raced down at the unsuspecting woman and landed with a smash, making the sands fly into the raven-haired lieutenant's face. He immediately went in for a chop...

… but was intercepted by his former opponent.

"Kkkh!" Shin pivoted on his right foot and spun, sweeping to ground with his left leg, hoping to get the captain to fall down. Unfortunately, it didn't work. The elder simply jumped into the air and dodged the attack. What the dual-wielding master didn't know was that Shin's leg reach further than anticipated and knocked down his lovely little vice-captain as well. While the man was still in the air, Shin rolled over to the woman on his side and was now facing her while laying on the ground. Grabbing her with his hands, the two continued to roll away from under the captain who was beginning his descent.

Then he rolled so that he was behind her, took her arm and forced it behind her back and stood up. The two were now standing.

* * *

Nanao Ise was very disoriented and confused. One moment, she was writing and analyzing the target, having been told that her fellow Shinigami would draw him away and keep her out of the fight, the next she was in an arm lock and being held hostage.

_Darn that captain for not keeping his promises!_

* * *

"Oi! Nana-chan~!" the scruffy, bearded captain called out. "How could you be so careless to get caught, my cute little vice-captain!"

Her face scrunched up in a frown.

"Well if you hadn't been so careless, you would have actually kept your promise to keep him away while I studied his techniques! You're such an idiot for a captain!" She was red in the face.

"Aw..." He pouted.

Shin would have no more of this absurdity. She, like Rangiku, received a swift blow to the base of her skull and was out for the count.

"You're next," he glared at the flowery-robed man.

* * *

Shin was on the run... well, more like on a race track running in circles trying to avoid the enemies that chased behind him. So far, he had taken out the other vice captains and all that remained where the death gods in white, minus Hitsugaya... and failed to take out the rather tedious man in a straw hat.

"How did he manage to knock out half of our forces?" Shunsui whined a little. Then he straightened his posture and a look of resolve washed over his face. "Guess I gotta be more serious this round...hmm."

Ichigo was tired, but not to the point of exhaustion. A drop of sweat rolled down his cheek, causing slight discomfort on his face. His mask was withdrawn, being saved for later usage if need be, but right now, the remaining captains were severely annoyed with the situation. Ten had now been reduced to a mere four. Ichigo looked beside himself and saw that Byakuya and Kenpachi were on his right, while Shunsui was on his left. He lighted up. Regardless of the fact that six members were down, the strongest four were left, and the Zero Division captain was sure that the odds were in their favor.

But just as he had been underestimated before, Ichigo had a gut feeling that his descendant was about to surprise them all in a very... Ichigo-like fashion. He couldn't think of any other way to word it. Countless times, Ichigo had shown up many of his seniors during the infiltration of Rukongai and Seireitei, as well as show off his major improvement in the Shinigami-Arrancar War with Aizen.

It never hurt to be too careful. He motioned Kenpachi to the front, and his other two fellow captains to take the rear. He would support the larger eye-patched man in a blitz tactic.

'_Youngster should never see it coming._'

* * *

Shin had a very bad feeling that he was about to get rushed like an amateur quarterback in a football game against iron-fisted professionals. Having experience trained to work in squads of four and fighting battles prior to this one, his instinct told him to jump in first before the enemy did him in. However, despite the fact that he'd have to go first, he did not have any team-mates backing him up. This is where his other conscience told him to draw his sword.

His hand twitched.

Would he draw?

Or would he make a break for it?

Taking a quick breath, Shin unsheathed his blade and gasped as a ray of light shined into his eyes, nearly blinding him.

* * *

A/N: Alright. Now, I know that this was WAAAAYYY longer than I anticipated, but I assure you, things are only behind schedule by some few weeks. I just started college a month ago and am trying to stay ahead of the program by not falling behind in classes. That is working out well, but of course, my story and fans have suffered. "Oops."

Now you some of you may have noticed that this chapter has a few subtle changes, from the Preview of CH14. The actual CH14 (this chapter), states that the lining and cape are black, not blue. I also had to rewrite a phrase that I accidentally reused from the last chapter. Poop.

I'll be back soon enough. Don't worry.


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